Katekyo Hitman Reborn: To Protect You
by Tayomi Sakuri
Summary: She was used to training people to protect others. She was used to protecting others, as the leader of Vongola's elite squad charged with training and protecting Vongola Decimo and his guardians. But Iiya was not prepared to fall for Tsuna's right-hand man, Gokudera. She protected people, but who would protect her heart? KHR Post-Future Arc
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1: UPON THE INHERITANCE**

 _This story takes place after the Future arc, as Tsuna and his guardians prepare to inherit their rightful places as the Vongola Decimo and his Guardians. Ever since the fateful day where Reborn showed up at his house, it had been three years of constant turmoil, battles and resolve to protect his friends. Despite being eighteen, he still was "No-Good Tsuna", and he was not completely accepting the fact that he was to be the head of the Vongola family. But Tsuna was about to become Vongola Decimo. For the sake of protecting his friends and everyone around him._

* * *

"Alright, I understand."

Dino Cavallone sat across the desk, facing his junior from Mafia school. He stared at the seventeen year old girl, knowing fully that he could trust her. " _Setting up her own organisation within the Vongola and running it so well that even the Ninth acknowledged her power… She truly is amazing,"_ Dino thought to himself.

"Sheesh, stop staring at me already!" She laughed. "I know we haven't seen each other in ages, but there'll be plenty of time for us to catch up. After all, I'm going to have to bring you in when I train that troublesome student of yours."

"Kyoya?" Dino sighed. "Yeah… He's a real troublesome kid alright. But he's not the only problematic one."

"I know," she nodded. "I"ve spoken to all the tutors of Tsuna and his guardians. Each of them have certain areas I'd like to work on. I don't know how they'd take being trained by someone younger than them you know."

"You're capable and you know it. You've trained so many members for both combat and intelligence."

"I'd still like to do a good job. Anyway, it's about time. We need to go for the party tonight. It's my chance to interact with them without them knowing who I am yet."

* * *

The ballroom of the Vongola headquarters were lit up by massive chandeliers, illuminating the floor as guests flooded in to celebrate Tsuna's reign as Vongola Decimo. Members of the Vongola family and their allies bustled in the room, chatting with one another about recent developments in the mafia world with cocktails in their hands. Tsuna and his guardians, all donned in their formal suits, descended down the carpeted staircase, Tsuna leading the way with Gokudera standing slightly behind him, followed by the other guardians.

"This is too crowded for my liking." Hibari grumbled. "When can I leave?"

"You can't Hibari! This is an important occasion! WE NEED TO ENJOY IT TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei grabbed Hibari's arm excitedly.

"Haha senpai, you're all fired up already?" Yamamoto grinned.

"Keep it DOWN!" Gokudera turned to Ryohei angrily. "Stupid Turf-top!"

"Lambo-san wants to play!" Lambo squirmed and flailed his arms happily.

"You can't…" Chrome muttered, holding Lambo tightly in her arms.

 _"_ _Hmm… Guess the reports were quite accurate. Training them is going to be difficult, but if all goes well, they'll be really strong. And they'll be able to protect the innocent, just like Vongola Primo. That's what the new Vongola Decimo wants to do anyway. And I like that."_ She thought, before walking towards Tsuna.

"Congratulations, Vongola Decimo!" She smiled, approaching Tsuna.

"Ah?" Tsuna scratched his head sheepishly. "Umm… Thank you."

"Well, I'll be seeing you very soon on a daily basis. And your guardians as well!"

"Umm really?" Tsuna smiled. "Alright then!"

* * *

Tsuna and his guardians followed Dino to the huge mansion adjacent to the ballroom after the party was over. It was past midnight and most of the guardians were exhausted, ready to retire to their respective rooms in their main quarters. However, Dino ordered them to follow him, telling them that they had an important meeting that could not wait for the next day. " _What's this familiar feeling? I feel like we'll be seeing someone we've met before."_ Tsuna thought to himself, unable to shake off this feeling he had. He put his thoughts on hold as he ushered them into the room at the end of the corridor.

Once he entered the room, he was instantly greeted by a familiar face he had seen that night. A young girl was sitting on top of the huge wooden office desk, smiling at him. She had light orange hair that faded to a pale shade of pink, ending slightly below her collarbones. Her clear blue eyes met everybody, as she looked into their eyes. Nodding at Tsuna, she hopped off her desk and walked up to him. She clearly was not very tall, her height being quite close to that of his. All of a sudden, she pulled him into a friendly hug, causing Tsuna to scream frantically and the other guardians to stare at her in bewilderment.

"Glad to finally be able to meet you." She laughed. "I'll introduce myself before Dino does it for me."

"Who said I was going to?" Dino grumbled.

"You know you wanted to." She laughed. "So… Hello everyone. My name is Iiya Kunaizu. I'm the boss of DS55, the elite squad in charge of both combat and intelligence relating to the Vongola Family. But mainly we are in charge of training and protecting the leader of the Vongola and his guardians, especially after the inheritance ceremony."

"She'll be training every single one of you guys starting from tomorrow."

"REBORN?" Tsuna gasped. "AND WHAT? TOMORROW? DON'T I GET A BREAK?"

"You're Vongola Decimo. You don't get one."

"BUT REBORN!"

"No buts!" Reborn shouted, jumping up to the desk and settling himself on Iiya's shoulder. "Iiya formed DS55 when she was fourteen and single-handedly developed it to become one of the most elite squads within the Vongola. You're lucky she turned down the Ninth's suggestion to be a successor of the Vongola, or you would've been fighting both her and Xanxus."

"She formed the squad at FOURTEEN?" Tsuna screamed.

"Yeah. DS55 is split into two departments, namely the intelligence and combat department. I don't need to explain what each department does. But just know that she's extremely well-versed in both and younger than all of you, except for Lambo." Dino nodded.

"Heh enough about me…" Iiya blushed. "I still need to explain the plan for tomorrow and tell you what you need to prepare."

Reborn and Dino nodded at her, leaving her to explain the details of the training programme to the seven standing before her.

"I'll start with you since you can't stand crowds. I think you're probably itching to leave." Iiya's face darkened into a serious expression, her eyes piercing and staring right into Hibari's.

"Are you strong?" Hibari asked, his arms folded.

"You'll see tomorrow." She spoke. "Come armed. We're going to spar tomorrow. Dino will bring you to the training center within Vongola's headquarters. I know you're strong, so we're going to make you even stronger."

Within a split second, Hibari whipped out his tonfas and lunged towards her. If there was anything, he hated being tutored by anyone, not even Dino. He wanted to do as he pleased, not be restrained and forced into doing something he was not interested in.

"Oi, Hibari!" Gokudera shouted, as the clashing of metal rang throughout the room.

Iiya had drawn her weapon, her left hand gripping silver metal. The metal was moulded to form three quarters of a circle, leaving space for her hand to slip through and grip the steel handle stretching across the diameter of the incomplete circle. Everyone's jaws dropped open in shock, not expecting her to be able to defend against Hibari's attack so quickly. Tsuna heaved a sigh of relief, glad that she was not hit and that he did not have to fight her during the representative battle.

"I hope you'll come fully prepared to fight me tomorrow, Hibari Kyoya." Iiya said. "Goodnight, Hibari."

Hibari smirked, keeping his tonfas and walking out of the door.

"Next up would be… Ryohei Sasagawa." She nodded.

"Yes! I'm ready for your training to the extreme!" He pumped his fist into the air, all ready to begin.

"Your strength and power is satisfactory. I'll be working on your speed while raising that power of yours. I'll be waiting to see some extreme improvement. Colonello will be coming to observe you too."

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

"Lambo?" She smiled. "Be ready to play the most fun game tomorrow!"

"YAY! Lambo-san wants to have fun!" Lambo waved his arms excitedly.

"Chrome! I'll be working on your combat abilities. I'm not good with illusions so I've called Mammon to help me a bit tomorrow… It was quite costly but I know it'll be worth my budget!"

"Yes!" Chrome smiled.

"Tsuna, Reborn will be helping me with training your stamina further." She nodded. "Increasing your endurance will help you be able to use more strength while staying in Hyper Dying Will Mode. So be prepared to be doing lots of running and climbing!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tsuna wailed. "Not again!"

"And next will be Yamamoto!" Iiya spoke, continuing down the line. "Your athleticism is good, so let's keep going on that. I'll be trying to speed you up and I'm bringing in Squalo to help me. He was quite willing to help and said he was going to kill you, so don't die!"

"Ahaha!" Yamamoto laughed nervously.

"Don't worry, if need be, I'll take Squalo on." Iiya grinned. "Ok last but not the least, Gokudera!"

"Yes!"

"I'll be helping you upgrade your Sistema C.A.I. further and make it stronger. I'll be training you to become the most reliable right-hand man ever, and help you defend your boss and the family better."

Gokudera bit his lip, feeling both determined and confused at what could possibly happen for him.

* * *

Iiya relaxed on her chair, closing her eyes briefly after Tsuna and his guardians left the room, leaving Reborn and Dino with her. She sighed, wondering how Dino and Reborn were able to keep this family under control. Drawing her weapon on their first meeting proved too shocking for her. Vongola Decimo's family was so diverse, she wondered if she would be able to train them properly. Training some of them would be manageable, but she suspected that she would need to pay more attention to the problematic ones. _"Hibari Kyoya is going to be a pain… But I knew that from the start. It's Tsuna's right-hand man that'll be an issue. I don't think he thinks I'm good enough to tutor him."_ She sighed.

"Sighing over Gokudera?" Reborn asked.

"You know what I'm thinking of, right?"

"Don't worry, just get some rest." Dino smiled. "Everything will fall into its place."

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Hi everyone! I've actually put off this story for a couple of years before deciding to edit and start on it. The pairing will take a bit of time to start up since I need to set everything in place. Romance-wise I do have a direction in mind, but I'm still thinking about the ideas I want for the conflict.

Please rate and review and hopefully I'll be able to upload more often since it's the holidays! (Same goes for my Bleach series) Thank you for reading! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2: THE DEFINITION OF STRENGTH**

Tsuna walked through the empty hallways of the Vongola mansion, yawning and stretching his arms sleepily. The sun had barely peeked out to take its place in the morning sky, coloured in hues of pastel blue and pink. The entire mansion was silent, except for the usual morning chatter coming from the kitchen. He gently pushed open the doors, revealing the sight of his guardians at the table having their breakfast, while some of their box animals and Lambo were running around, refusing to settle down.

"Good morning, Tenth!" Gokudera stood up from his seat eagerly, as the others smiled and greeted Tsuna, with the exception of Hibari, who had never liked crowding around at any time of the day.

As Tsuna sat down to join his friends, Iiya strolled into the room, yawning and blinking her eyes, as if she had just woken up. She was still dressed in her sleepwear, namely an oversized long-sleeved shirt in a shade of lilac, as well as striped cotton socks that reached up to her calves. Her face looked a little damp, as if she had only just splashed water on her face. Not noticing Tsuna and his guardians staring at her with confused looks on their faces, she opened the door of the refrigerator and squatted down in front of it for a moment, before grabbing a carton of strawberry milk.

"Oh, good morning guys…" Iiya mumbled, upon noticing the dumbfounded looks on everyone's faces. "What's with that look on your faces?"

"Haha, it's nothing really! I think we just didn't expect you to be that kind of person in the morning!" Yamamoto laughed, leaning back in his chair.

"Haha," Iiya laughed, slightly more awake than she was a minute ago. "I may be the boss but I'm still around your age, so don't expect me to behave too differently from all of you!"

All of a sudden, Uri jumped off from the table and ran towards Iiya, trying to climb up her leg.

"URI!" Gokudera shouted at his misbehaving pet. "Stop that!"

"It's alright, Gokudera." Iiya giggled, picking Uri up and cuddling the tiny kitten in her arms, giving it a little kiss on its forehead. "She's so cute. Remember to bring her later for training!"

Gokudera groaned and shook his head, recalling the numerous times Uri had fought with him and clawed the life out of him.

* * *

Tsuna's family assembled in the training room, hidden underground below the Vongola mansion. According to Dino, this training area was top secret, reserved only for the leader of the Vongola and his guardians to use, and guarded by DS55. Iiya looked much more awake now, dressed in a pair of navy blue high waisted shorts and a white tank top. She tied her dark green military jacket around her waist, completing her outfit with black boots and a silver bangle worn high above her elbow. Braiding her hair loosely, she glanced at Tsuna and his guardians, as the people she had called in to assist her slowly took their places beside her.

"Well it's nine in the morning, so lets begin." She nodded at her watch. "Reborn, take Tsuna and make sure he runs the circumference of this training area at least a hundred times in Hyper Dying Will Mode, in forty-five minutes."

"WHAT?" Tsuna shrieked, falling to his knees instantly.

"Get up No-Good Tsuna!" Reborn kicked Tsuna hard, before gripping him by his shirt collar and dragging him out for his laps.

"Ryohei, you'll be running the same route as Tsuna. Fifty laps in 1 hour. Colonello will follow you. GO!"

"YES! TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei instantly bolted out of the door, with Colonello following after him.

"Chrome, go to the third room on this floor to find Mammon. I'll call you in when I'm done with Hibari."

"Ok!" Chrome tightened the grip around her weapon, running off to find Mammon, who would start her off for the morning.

"Squalo, bring Yamamoto to the second room on this floor and start him off."

"Fine." Squalo huffed, not used to doing insignificant things such as training. "By the way, the damn boss wants to…"

"I'm not seeing him." Iiya snapped, her tone of voice darkening instantly.

"VOI! Stop making things difficult for me! It's not my fault the damn boss keeps asking for you!"

"Tell your boss that I'm not going to find him after what happened that time. And not to expect me to talk to him ever again."

Snarling, Squalo stormed off the the second room, with Yamamoto following behind him.

"Gokudera, I want you to answer these questions." Iiya spoke, handing him a small stack of papers filled with diagrams. "It'll help you with upgrading Sistema C.A.I. and your dynamites as well. I'm not too sure if it'll work well with the dynamites honestly, I only thought it up last night. You can do this in the observation area in this room. Also, please help me look after Lambo, I can't have him running into this training area while I fight Hibari."

"I have to babysit the stupid cow?!" Gokudera protested.

"Yeah."

Sighing, Gokudera picked Lambo up and headed into the observation area within the room. Placing Lambo on the sofa, he put on his glasses, tied his hair up and began looking over the diagrams Iiya had given him. _"_ _I can_ _'_ _t believe she knows this much about Sistema C.A.I. and she can even provide points of improvements for it_ _…_ _How could she possibly figure so much out? What kind of person is she?_ _"_ He pondered to himself.

* * *

With the arena cleared, except for Dino who was watching on the side, Iiya slowly turned to face Hibari, who was all ready with his tonfas in his hands. Fishing into the back pocket of her shorts, she took out her black half-gloves and slipped them on, before taking her weapons out.

"What kind of weapon is that?" Hibari enquired, having never seen a weapon like that before.

"I call it a crosscut. I wield both weapons on my hands, just like you do." Iiya said.

"Interesting."

At an alarmingly high speed, Hibari rushed towards Iiya, sounding the first clash of metal of the day. His tonfas were shrouded by his massive Cloud flames, as he struck Iiya relentlessly, attempting to strike his enemy down. However, Iiya kept up with him perfectly fine, countering his every attack, her crosscuts lighted with sky flames. The battle appeared to be a stalemate, neither one of them faltering in their steps.

" _She's not even going all out on him yet. Don't get cocky now, Kyoya!"_ Dino thought to himself, as he watched his junior fend against Hibari's vicious attacks effortlessly.

"Let's go a little faster, shall we?" Iiya grinned.

In an instant, Iiya sped up her attacks, finally getting on the offensive. She struck back at him, going at such a high speed that even Hibari was beginning to show signs of a struggle. Finally, she landed her first hit on him, knocking him backwards and sending him flying towards the wall. As Hibari flew backwards, she ran after him, landing her heel on his stomach mid-air and plunging her weapon downwards, stopping just as the rounded top of her weapon came into contact with his neck. Two sharp spikes shot out from the curves of her weapon, landing squarely on the floor, barely missing his neck.

"Just so you know," Iiya said, a murderous glint in her eyes. "You would've died if this were a real fight. Once I release the spike in the middle, it would've gone through your neck and severed your cervical spine."

Slowly getting up, she pulled her weapon out of the ground and kept it. Motioning to Dino to come, she stared at Hibari as he lay unconscious.

"Lusting for a fight won't make you truly strong. Find your true reason to fight, Hibari Kyoya."

"AHHHHHH! HIBARI-SAN?" Tsuna screamed as he saw Dino helping an unconscious Hibari out of the training area. Hibari did not look very beaten up, but he was motionless and unresponsive.

"He got knocked out by Iiya." Dino shook his head. "She's even stronger than I remembered her to be."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah. I knew that she wouldn't lose to Kyoya, but still… I didn't expect her to be able to catch him off guard so quickly and take him out without doing much."

" _What a fearsome person… I'm so glad I didn't have to fight her in the representative match…"_ Tsuna thought, sending a shiver down his spine.

"You'll probably have to fight her eventually, Tsuna! So be prepared!" Reborn snickered.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

"She took out Hibari so quickly… How is it possible?" Gokudera muttered to himself.

"That's because I know how all of you fight."

Gokudera instantly turned around, coming face to face with Iiya.

"Hmm? I didn't know you wore glasses." She blushed. "You look nice like that."

"Umm!" Gokudera instantly panicked, his face turning bright red upon hearing that unexpected compliment.

"Anyway, did you figure out the diagrams I gave you?"

"Yeah, I did." Gokudera nodded. "Basically, you want me to use my Sun flame attributes to be able to help Uri grow whenever I need to. The Lightning flame attributes are to strengthen my defences, especially for the loops. Also, you want me to use the Cloud and Rain flame attributes to propogate and tranquilize anything within an extended area, so as to increase the reach of my system."

"Yup, that's right." Iiya sighed. "I'm so glad you didn't disappoint me by not figuring it out!"

"Well, I'm the Tenth's right-hand man, I need to do whatever it takes to get stronger!"

"Alright then, I want you to keep working on this and report your progress to me. I'll give you three days to figure all of this out."

"Yes!"

"That's the spirit."

Iiya walked over to him and gave Gokudera a hug, causing his face to burn up immediately at her unexpected gesture.

"I think… You'll be a great help to Tsuna."

Stepping out for a moment, Iiya quickly dialled the number she hated most, grumbling as she left a message on his voicemail.

"Xanxus? I'm not going to repeat myself again. I'm not coming back, and that's that."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I hope you have been enjoying the story so far :) I'll be trying to pick up the pace of the story, but for now it's a bit too early to rush into the romance aspect since they've just met each other :)

Next chapter, Xanxus will finally make his appearance and Iiya isn't going to be too happy with that. She and Gokudera will also get a bit closer, so there's that to look forward to!

Thank you for the support on this story so far! Please leave a review to tell me what you think :) Thank you so much and stay tuned for more!


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3: THE TRUTH MUST COME TO LIGHT**

"Good work today everyone!" Iiya smiled, clapping her hands together.

Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, Lambo and Chrome were seated in the dining room of the Vongola mansion. On the table lay a spread of both Italian and Japanese cuisine, which Iiya had personally cooked for all of them. As expected, Hibari refused to join them due to his deep hatred for crowding, so Iiya had his share of food sent to his room. Lambo's eyes lit up instantly upon seeing the amounts of food prepared. Dino and Reborn also joined them at the table, exhausted after a long day of training the Guardians.

"Lambo-san wants that takoyaki!" Lambo exclaimed excitedly, reaching for the takoyaki and stuffing in his mouth.

"Now, now Lambo! There's more than enough for all of us!" Yamamoto chuckled, seeing the Lightning Guardian at the peak of his enthusiasm for the day.

"You're really lucky guys," Dino laughed. "You have no idea how good she is at cooking and how difficult it is to get you to cook for her."

"It's not like I never cooked for you when I was still in Mafia school!" Iiya retorted. "And this meal is for their hard work today! Can't I pamper my students a little?"

"Wow… Thank you Iiya-san!" Tsuna exclaimed. "Itadakimasu!"

Iiya smiled as she watched them enjoy her home-cooked meal, feeling satisfied that she was able to have a productive day training them. She could already forsee the vast improvements they would be making in time, knowing that she would eventually unleash their full potential. However, a part of her felt deeply unsettled, as Squalo's words from the morning rang incessantly in her head.

"Enjoy yourselves guys, I'll be back to join you all shortly!"

Everyone stared at Iiya as she rushed out of the door in a hurry, wondering what she could possibly be up to all of a sudden. Reborn told everyone to keep eating, believing that she would probably be back soon as she had said. He felt a sense of unease creep into his heart, considering what she could possibly be doing at this hour. Dino glanced at Reborn, sharing the same feelings, biting his lip nervously. Their subtle discomfort caught Tsuna's eye, as his instincts told him that something was very wrong with what had just happened.

* * *

"Where's Iiya?" Lambo grumbled. "I want her to play with me!"

"Yeah!" Ryohei sat up all of a sudden. "She's been gone for an hour!"

Dino sighed, looking at his watch and beginning to worry for her safety. Nodding at Reborn, he stood up from his seat.

"I'll go look for her," he volunteered.

"Ah, I'll go too!" Tsuna spoke up.

"I'll follow you, Juudaime!" Gokudera also chimed in.

"Alright, the rest of you stay here. It's probably nothing," Reborn declared. "I hope."

"Alright, kid! Tell us if you need any help!" Yamamoto said. "Let's clear up the dining room in the meanwhile, everyone!"

"Dino-san! Where are we going?" Tsuna asked, as he ran after Dino and Reborn.

"We're going to the Varia headquarters."

"Varia?" Gokudera's eyes shot open in shock. "Why would she be there?"

"Xanxus." Reborn spoke. "She's probably looking for Xanxus right now. Especially after what Squalo said this morning."

 _"_ _If Xanxus wants to see her now… It must be about what happened last year." Reborn thought to himself. "As strong as she is… She won't be safe there."_

"Hurry up, all of you! We're running out of time! And once we get there, remember to avoid combat and just get out of there!"

"We'll regroup in the underground tunnel. There's an entrance to the tunnel near Varia's headquarters. Use it once you find her and tell the rest of us! We'll go back to the mansion together!" Dino shouted.

* * *

"So you came."

Xanxus remained seated on his chair, swirling his red wine in its glass, before gulping it down. His legs crossed, he glared at Iiya, snarling in irritation as he looked her up and down.

"I didn't want to, but seems you didn't understand what I meant when I said I never wanted to speak to you again unless it's work-related. I would love to never have to speak to you again, of course, but given our positions within the Vongola… We'd have to talk eventually." Iiya huffed, refusing to look at Xanxus in the eye.

"So when are you coming back?"

"I'm not."

Once he heard her, he crushed the wine glass in his bare hand and stormed over to her.

"You break into my room unannounced just to tell me THIS?"

"Yeah."

"You won't break out of this."

"I already did. The Ninth approved of it too. I returned everything that could possibly belong to you already." Iiya responded defiantly.

"YOU!"

Xanxus whipped out his gun, jamming it against her temple roughly. Her answer was beyond unacceptable to him. Iiya was backed against the wall, and she could sense a wave of fear overtaking her mind. But she knew that the last thing she needed was for her to lose her cool. She did not want to end up fighting the feared boss of the Varia unless the situation required it.

"My initial reason for accepting the Ninth's request was due to his kindness to me. Now kindly remove your weapon from my head, because I've said all I came here to say and I'm leaving."

Xanxus' free hand slammed into the wall behind her, smashing the wall so hard that it formed a dent and the cement was cracking up, with flakes of wallpaper tearing off.

"You're not going anywhere, you scum."

His teeth sank into the flesh of her neck, as he bit her, his gun still pointed at her temple. Before things could escalate any further, she kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking him off her. With room to run, she instantly bolted out of the door and rushed down the hallway, drawing her weapons in case anyone tried to stop her escape.

 _"_ _I need to get out of here fast."_

* * *

Gokudera crept around the back door of the mansion stealthily, staying on the first floor as the other three mafiosos went to check the other sections of Varia's headquarters. He waited at the back door, before silently creeping through the door. Suddenly, he heard rapid footsteps coming down the hallway where he was at.

"It's you?" He gasped, upon seeing Iiya racing towards him.

"RUN!" She shrieked.

Bursts of sky flames shot through the corridors, blowing up any object within its reach. Gokudera and Iiya bolted down the corridor, with Gokudera using part of Sistema C.A.I. to defend their backs and block any incoming attacks. Unfortunately, they were reaching a dead end with Xanxus on their tails.

"Jump!"

Iiya kicked the window, shattering the glass cleanly and jumping out, landing safely in the bushes below with Gokudera following after her.

"What are you doing, you idiot? Don't go this way!"

Hastily, Gokudera grabbed her wrist and dragged her to the secret entrance to the tunnel, knowing there wasn't a second to lose if they wanted to stay alive.

* * *

Closing the porthole above them, Gokudera heaved a sigh of relief knowing that they were out of Xanxus' sight. He sent a message to Dino, Reborn and Tsuna, telling them that he had found her. Locking his phone, he glanced at Iiya, who was looking considerably drained, both physically and mentally. She sat on the ground, unable to move. Somehow, she had lost her military jacket while running away from Xanxus and the right strap of her top was torn off completely, making her look completely dishevelled.

"Oi, why were you at the Varia's headquarters?"

No response.

"OI!"

Iiya looked at him, her eyes devoid of any emotion but sadness.

"What a bother…" He sighed, squatting down in front of her.

He took off his black hooded jacket, handing it to her.

"For you. Don't catch a cold."

Iiya shook her head.

"I don't need it. I'm good."

"You don't look alright at all, damn it!" Gokudera shouted in frustration.

Iiya buried her head in her knees, refusing to look up and let her face be seen as her eyes released a few tears, shaken by everything that had just unfolded. She took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from losing her composure and crying. He was taken aback by her actions, not expecting her to react in such a way. _"I guess she meant it when she said she wasn't different from us… She has her own fears too."_ Gokudera thought to himself. Not really knowing what to do, he hesitated for a moment before putting his hand on her head.

"I don't know what's your deal with those people… But you should be okay."

* * *

Iiya sat on the couch in Tsuna's office, with Gokudera, Tsuna, Dino and Reborn surrounding her.

"Iiya!" Dino shouted. "What were you thinking, rushing to confront him like that? I know that that's your old headquarters, but still! Confronting Xanxus just like that?"

"Old headquarters?" Tsuna scratched his head in confusion.

"Yeah," Reborn nodded. "Iiya used to be in Varia. She was there since she was seven, until she left to set up DS55."

"YOU WERE FROM VARIA?" Tsuna screamed in shock.

"No wonder you knew so much about us…" Gokudera muttered. "You set up DS55 after the Representative battle was done. So it was easy for you to find out how we fought and what kind of people we were."

Iiya stared at the four of them, feeling slightly guilty.

"Sorry to make you all worry. But I had to face it eventually. Or else he won't stop bothering me."

"But after what happened last year, you know you shouldn't have went alone!" Dino shouted angrily.

Standing up abruptly, Iiya stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut.

"Umm, Dino-san…" Tsuna asked meekly. "What happened between Iiya-san and Xanxus?"

Dino and Reborn looked at each other, unsure of whether or not to reveal the truth to the two boys.

"We'll tell you everything," Dino sighed. "But both of you have to keep it a secret for as long as possible. She isn't going to be happy if she knows we told you, but it's something you'd find out eventually."

Gokudera and Tsuna nodded.

"Iiya…" Reborn said. "She was Xanxus' fiancée."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! There'll be a lot of explaining to do next chapter, as I'll be writing about Iiya's past in the Varia, her history with Xanxus and how she ended up in this situation.

Please feel free to leave a review to tell me what you think so far :) Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4: BURIED HATRED**

"F-F-FIANCEE?" Tsuna shrieked. " SHE WAS XANXUS' FIANCEE?"

"SHHHHHHH!" Dino shushed Tsuna. "Keep it down!"

"But isn't she a little too young to get engaged?" Gokudera asked curiously, clearly a little disturbed by this.

"Ever heard of arranged marriages?"

* * *

 _"_ _Iiya-chan?" Timoteo smiled. "Thank you for coming to see me at such short notice."_

 _"_ _No problem, Ninth!" Iiya laughed. "I haven't seen you in ages! I've been wanting to drop by to visit you, but I guess setting up this new organisation and continuing to fulfil my missions within the Varia has been eating up my time. So… Why did you call me here? Do you need my help?"_

 _The happiness in Timoteo's eyes suddenly changed to that of sadness and worry. He wondered if he should be doing such a thing and asking her for such a huge favour. Yet, with the results of the Representative Battle and his failing health, he was truly worried for the future of his adopted son. As ruthless as he had been, he was still his son, though not by blood. If his health were to fail him one day, who would look after him? He certainly could not rely on any of the officers of Varia for such a task. Struggling with the right words to say, Timoteo finally spoke up._

 _"_ _Well, you know my son Xanxus…"_

 _"_ _Yeah, him." Iiya nodded, with a sense of uneasiness in her voice._

 _"_ _I'll just be straightforward with you, Iiya-chan. I know that this will be very unfair to you and I'd hate to do this to you… But I haven't been in the best of health, as you know. And I worry about Xanxus… If I'm gone, who would care for him?"_

 _"_ _Ninth, don't say that! You'll be just fine!"_

 _"_ _It's going to be unfair towards you… But I can't trust anyone but you to take care of him… Anyone else in Varia would just feed his ruthlessness and his hastiness… I can only trust you to help me keep him under control…"_

 _"_ _So Ninth…" Iiya spoke slowly. "What do you want me to do..?"_

 _"_ _I… I'd like you to marry my son."_

* * *

"And she said yes? Even though she's ten years younger than him?" Gokudera raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Iiya feels indebted to the Ninth," Reborn explained. "Iiya's parents were both assassins working for the Varia. They died on a mission when she was five, and the Ninth told the Vongola to take her in and look after her."

"The boss of Varia at that time saw her light her dying will flames when she was playing in the garden near the mansion, and spoke to the Ninth about training her to join the Varia. That's why the Ninth sent her to the Mafia school, where Squalo and I studied…" Dino said.

"And that's why she never met Xanxus in person." Gokudera figured it out quickly, finishing Dino's sentence.

* * *

 _"_ _The old man brought me a child?" Xanxus muttered to himself._

 _"_ _Shi shi shi," Belphegor laughed. "She's also a Varia member too. Apparently, she's strong enough to be an officer and her flames have the same attributes as yours."_

 _"_ _Leave her here."_

 _"_ _Sure, boss." Belphegor grinned, before slipping out of the room._

 _The atmosphere in the room felt both tense and awkward, as Xanxus stared at Iiya, looking at her closely from his seat._

 _"_ _So the old man said that I'll marry you once you turn eighteen?" He finally spoke, sipping his wine while keeping his eyes on her._

 _"_ _If the 'old man' you're referring to is the Ninth," Iiya replied curtly, showing her obvious distaste towards his lack of respect towards the Ninth. "Then yeah, apparently that's what's happening."_

 _Xanxus had a murderous glint in his eyes, as he placed his wine glass on the table and walked towards Iiya, who was standing right in front of his table. He lifted her chin and turned her face right and left, peering at her features. Iiya looked him in the eye, wondering what he was so curious about._

 _"_ _Not bad for a fourteen year old."_

* * *

"I can't believe she could put up with him for two years…" Tsuna shuddered, thinking about how she had to put up with such a violent guy on a daily basis.

"None of us could believe it either," Reborn sighed. "Anyone her age would have been unable to take it. But she was both mentally and physically strong enough to withstand him, until last year…"

* * *

 _The door to Xanxus office fell open, completely separated from its hinges, with his subordinates lying outside, completely unconscious. It was not an unusual sight to see in the Varia headquarters, as Xanxus losing his temper was something that happened on a regular basis. He slumped back down in his chair, downing whatever liquor there was in his wine glass and grumbling about his "trash" subordinates. Stepping over the pile of unconscious Varia members on the floor, Iiya huffed, already sickened by what she had to deal with every day._

 _"_ _Really, Xanxus?" Iiya shouted. "You just HAD to throw your subordinates through the door, just because they ran out of the wine you wanted to drink today?"_

 _Xanxus glared at her, not admiring the fact that she had been telling him off whenever he did things like that._

 _"_ _You're an idiot, really." Iiya rolled her eyes at him, exasperated and wondering why she had to put up with him._

 _Upon hearing that, he rushed over to her and grabbed her wrist, slamming her against the wall so hard that all the paintings hung there crashed onto the ground. He took out his gun and jammed it under her chin, furious that Iiya showed no signs of flinching, despite her young age._

 _"_ _Shut up, trash." Xanxus growled._

 _"_ _Get off me." Iiya retorted._

 _Not caring that his door was knocked over and fully open, Xanxus forced his teeth onto her neck, keeping the gun aimed under her chin._

* * *

"And the next day, Iiya told me she had resigned from Varia and she was breaking off the engagement." Dino sighed.

"What…" Tsuna stumbled with his words, completely dumbfounded. "What did he do to her..?"

"She never told me, Tsuna," Dino looked down, with worry in his eyes. "All I know is that she still felt bad towards the Ninth for breaking off the engagement, but she told the Ninth that she couldn't stand what he had been putting her through. And she was pretty upset over everything that had happened."

"She may be strong and she's good at hiding her feelings, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things out there that can destroy her spirit." Reborn continued. "After she broke things off, Xanxus kept bugging her and attempted to sabotage her efforts to set up DS55… She was lucky that the Ninth still supported her and stopped Xanxus from interfering. This allowed the organisation to flourish to what it is today."

"Then why does she still want to look for Xanxus? She can just continue to ignore him and keep her distance."

"Iiya doesn't like keeping things unresolved. I think she wants to finish things with Xanxus without troubling the Ninth and everyone around her."

* * *

After ensuring that Tsuna had got to his room safely, Gokudera walked up to the rooftop for his usual smoke before he went to bed. When he opened the door to the rooftop, he smelt the scent of a burning cigarette, turning his head to see who was there. His eyes met a familiar pair of blue eyes, which stared back at him emotionlessly.

"Shouldn't you be in bed by now? It's late." Iiya tried to smile, a burning cigarette placed comfortably between her second and middle finger.

"Are you… Smoking?" Gokudera asked, bewildered by the fact that the cigarette wasn't in her mouth.

"I don't smoke cigarettes." She replied. "I just light them and let them burn. The scent calms me down sometimes."

Flicking his lighter, Gokudera quickly lit his cigarette and put it between his teeth for a while, before removing it and blowing out white puffs of smoke.

"Stop lighting them. You're wasting good cigarettes." He mumbled.

"I wonder what smoking feels like."

"A girl like you shouldn't really be smoking…" He sighed.

"I'm just a year younger than all of you."

Iiya put out her cigarette, as the scent of Gokudera's cigarette wafted up her nose. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, trying to shake off the encounter she just had with Xanxus. It was so diffcult to find solutions to a problem, and Xanxus being part of the problem just made things so much worse for her. Gokudera glanced at her, noticing how her eyes were closed yet her brows were furrowed, showing how troubled she felt inside.

"Thanks for today though." Iiya whispered.

Gokudera sighed, unable to figure out how she was really feeling at that moment.

"The Tenth was really worried about you. As his right-hand man, I had to help out."

Iiya smiled weakly, before standing up from her spot.

"I'm going to bed now. See you tomorrow morning."

"See you."

"By the way…"

"Yeah, Iiya-san?"

"What cigarettes do you smoke? I like the way it smells."

"You don't need to know."

"Haha, alright. Goodnight, Gokudera-kun."

* * *

Iiya slowly walked back to her room, her head still filled with thoughts of the day, but feeling slightly better after that conversation with her pupil. She tried to clear her head, knowing that she had a long day of training ahead of her, and she had no time to be distracted by her personal problems.

 _"_ _What is this strange feeling?"_ She thought to herself _._

Though she was not keen on admitting it, she could not deny the fact that she found intellect and cigarettes rather appealing. Letting the thoughts invade her head briefly, she shoved it out once she reached her bedroom. She quickly changed into her sleepwear, before burying herself under her blanket and refusing to think of anything else as she fell into her slumber.

The time to think about feelings was not on her agenda.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I feel like things just got really serious in this chapter. Honestly, there were so many possibilities when I was thinking of her back story, but somehow this one just felt like it suited the story well. Next chapter, I'll focus on further developing the relationship between Iiya and Gokudera, as well as with the rest of Tsuna's family :)

I finally got my first review for this story! Thank you so much allylovesbluefood :D

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Do leave a review to tell me what you think :) Stay tuned!


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5: IT'S BETTER TO BE NUMB**

"Iiya-san, you were looking for me?"

Tsuna gingerly pushed the door to Iiya's office open, wondering why she had called him on the morning of their first day off. He had been through a tiring week of training with her, and he was hoping that she wasn't here to tell him that she had a task for him to complete today. Today, he was supposed to meet Kyoko outside for lunch and he was nervous enough already. The last thing he needed was a surprise assignment to throw him in a state of complete panic.

"Yeah," Iiya smiled, gesturing him to the seat in front of her. "I just wanted to update you on your progress, as well as your guardians'!"

"Ah…" Tsuna laughed. "I see…"

"Don't worry, I know you have a date with Kyoko! So I won't ruin your plans for you!" Iiya winked at him.

"IT'S… IT'S NOT A DATE, IIYA-SAN!" Tsuna jumped in shock, not expecting her to say that.

"It is to you," Iiya smirked teasingly, enjoying herself as Tsuna's face got even redder.

"IIYA-SAN!"

"Haha okay, I'll stop making fun of you, that's what Reborn is here for." Iiya grinned mischievously. "So, ready to know how you've been doing?"

"Um… Yeah…" Tsuna gulped, expecting to hear signs of his failure come out from her mouth.

"You've been doing quite alright, your stamina is increasing steadily…" Iiya read from her written report. "I'll be increasing the intensity of your training next week, so you'd better have a good rest tonight."

 _"Exactly how much more intense can my training get?"_ Tsuna thought, shuddering to himself.

"I can't say much about Gokudera yet, since he's going to be meeting me later to report to me on his progress with Sistema C.A.I., but I'll be upgrading his dynamites later and see what I can do to help. Most of your guardians are doing alright though, they've been consistent in their improvements. Lambo would be improving more, if he would just focus properly. I wanted to teach him how to use his horns, but he fell asleep halfway when I was talking…"

"Sorry…" Tsuna apologised. "Lambo is always like that…"

"It's alright, Tsuna," Iiya smiled. "Lambo isn't even ten years old yet… He's still a child. And it's difficult enough to train both his present form and his older self. Alright, that's it! ENJOY YOUR DATE, TSUNA!"

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! IIYA-SAN!"

* * *

Iiya lay back in her chair, staring at the progress reports and planning out tomorrow's training procedures in her head. Spinning her pen in her hand and crossing her legs, she bit her lip, wondering what to do with Lambo tomorrow. Planning games wasn't exactly her specialty, but she had to do it in order to keep Lambo's attention on learning.

"Excuse me, Iiya-san."

"Oh, come in, Gokudera-kun." Iiya said, immediately sitting up.

Gokudera walked in with the stack of diagrams in his hand, wearing his glasses and his hair tied up in a ponytail. Iiya stood up from her chair as he passed her the diagrams he had drawn, flipping through them briefly and scanning each word with her eyes. So far, the diagrams were looking good, and she could tell that he almost had it all figured out.

"Good work, Gokudera-kun," she smiled. "Just make the necessary adjustments and we can try it out tomorrow during training."

Walking over to the empty space on the floor, she started laying out the diagrams on the ground, piecing each diagram together. Gokudera stared at her with his eyes wide in shock, not noticing that all the diagrams he had drawn could actually be put together to form a bigger picture. Iiya looked up at him briefly, expecting his response, before she continued to put the diagram together. Once she was done, she sat down on the floor, motioning him to join her.

"Do you see what I see?"

"Y-yeah…" He stuttered.

On the floor, a full extension of the Sistema C.A.I. lay before him. The arrows he had drawn began to point at each other, extending on his idea of combining different flame attributes to produce different effects on his storm flame. But ultimately, the biggest thing he noticed was how all of his other flames could be used simultaneously to strengthen his storm flame.

"I expected you to figure out the individual improvements relatively quickly," Iiya explained. "But I half-expected you to miss out on this big picture as well. As a right-hand man, you need to constantly consider the big picture in everything you do. You have to make sure that whatever your decision is, it's the best decision to take in order to aid the Family. Understood?"

"Yeah…"

"Besides that, I understand how difficult it is to utilise different flames together." She sighed. "Figuring out how to combine the attributes successfully does take some time, but I knew you were intelligent enough to get it by this week."

Slipping on her old Varia ring onto her pinky, she lit the ring up. However, the flames on the ring weren't orange, but were indigo in colour. Gokudera's jaw dropped in surprise, feeling as if he had been through too many shocks in less than an hour.

"I only have a minimal amount of Mist dying will flames in my body, but it's enough to produce a flame. It took me quite some time to discover it, and even more to figure out how to use it properly. I only use this flame during assassinations in my time in the Varia though."

* * *

Both Gokudera and Iiya had been hard at work for over an hour, writing notations on the diagram Iiya had pieced together for him and making every connection possible in Sistema C.A.I.. She had complicated things further by introducing an extra element, which were the dynamites he used, trying to further integrate it into the system as well as use the system to strengthen his offenses. Uri had somehow managed to enter the room, purring as she walked around, curiously sniffing at everything in her sight. After she was done, she immediately turned her attention to her owner, who was fully focused on his work. Ideally enough, his back was facing her.

"MEOW!"

Uri pounced onto Gokudera, slamming herself against the back of his head and causing him to fall forward. He toppled over, falling straight onto Iiya. Suddenly, he felt something soft on his lips, his pale green eyes staring right into hers, which were wide open. He drew his head back instantly, still staring at her, being unable to keep his eyes off hers for some incomprehensible reason. She also appeared to feel the same way, as she was looking straight at him as well, her gaze showing no signs of averting. Iiya could smell, and just tasted, the cigarettes he had smoked earlier. Supposedly, she should be feeling calmer, yet her heart would not stop pounding loudly in her chest. Being at such a close proximity to him, she could also feel his heartbeat quicken, yet both of them were unable to say a word or move.

 _"What is this feeling?"_ She thought.

 _"I don't understand this feeling… Why does it make me want to…"_ Gokudera pondered, feeling his sense of logic leave him briefly as he brought his face closer towards hers, ever so slowly.

It was as if they had instantly found their chemistry together, as they closed their eyes and let go of their pens at the exact same moment, kissing each other softly once before drawing back again. Iiya could already feel her face burning up, both in colour and temperature, yet she somehow found the courage to slowly reach up to him and remove his glasses, leaving no barrier between their eyes. Placing his glasses on the ground beside her, she wrapped her arms around his neck as he approached her again, with a much longer and gentler kiss. She could feel one hand combing through her orange hair and another hand lifting her up a little to wrap around her waist, as their feelings deepened. Part of her felt as if she was being consumed by him, as he turned his head slightly and they parted their lips, embracing this unknown sensation they both felt. Yet, this consumption somehow it felt so soft and peaceful.

"Meow?"

Uri's purr seemed to have suddenly brought their senses back, as Gokudera jumped off immediately and Iiya sat up, both of them staring at each other, seemingly horrified at what had unfolded for the past few minutes.

"Argh, I'm terribly sorry!" He apologised profusely, bowing to her numerous times. "I'm so sorry for that!"

Snatching up his glasses on the floor, he dashed out of the room, his face still blushing nervously. Iiya blinked as Uri ran after her owner, unable to move for a few seconds before she quickly reached up to cover her cheeks.

"Oh crap, what did I just do?" She shrieked.

* * *

Gokudera stomped down the hallway, still feeling flustered as Uri continued to follow him behind, purring innocently as if she had done nothing to him.

"Argh, Uri!" He scolded her as he paced forward, with his hands in his pockets, fumbling for his cigarette and a lighter. "Why did you do that?"

"Ah, Gokudera, there you are!" Yamamoto came running up behind him, with Ryohei jogging over to join them. "Want to go - Wah! Why's your face so red?"

"Your face is extremely red, Octopus-head!" Ryohei exclaimed. "Weren't you just at your meeting with Iiya-san?"

"ARGHHHHHHH! DON'T ASK!" Gokudera ran off in exasperation, feeling even more desperate to get away from everyone else.

Yamamoto and Ryohei looked at each other in bewilderment, having never seen Gokudera that jittery before. They glanced at Uri, who was licking her paw and meowing softly.

"Do you know what happened, kitty?" Yamamoto picked Uri up and asked.

Uri simply tilted her head and purred, causing the bell on her collar to tinkle softly.

"Oh? This kitty must know something!" Ryohei shouted. "TELL US MORE, TO THE EXTREME!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Omg it feels like it's been ages since I wrote something so awkwardly fluffy like this XD

Just to explain why I updated so quickly, it's because I may be getting a little busier recently! I usually write my chapters at night, but since I'll be out tonight and tomorrow I have a full day of rehearsals for my upcoming performance in December, I just thought I'd write this chapter early since I already knew roughly how I wanted it to go :)

I got my second review! Thank you so much, Eyes-Of-Lost-Fate!

In the meanwhile until the next update, I'll think about what to write next. Tell me if you all want another light-hearted chapter like this, or if you'd prefer to read something more serious :) Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Stay tuned for more :)


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6: NEW DEVELOPMENTS**

"Onii-san?"

Tsuna ran over to Ryohei and Yamamoto, who had gotten out their box animals and appeared to be deep in conversation with Gokudera's box animal, Uri.

"Oh, Tsuna! You're just in time!" Yamamoto chuckled. "Get NaTsu out!"

"Huh, what for?" Tsuna asked, clearly confused by his request.

"We're trying to find out the truth from the cat!" Ryohei spoke excitedly. "Octopus-head just ran out of Iiya-san's office and his face was RED TO THE EXTREME!"

After extreme persuasion from Ryohei, Tsuna sighed and gave in to their request, bringing NaTsu out of its box. Apparently, according to Yamamoto's logic, since Gokudera and Uri both had storm flames and Iiya and NaTsu had sky flames, the two animals together could give a hint about what happened between the two of them. _"Yamomoto and his weird logic again…"_ Tsuna thought in his head. However, despite the improvements in the two animals' relationship over the years, NaTsu was still slightly afraid of Uri, not daring to approach it on its own. Tsuna patted NaTsu's head, encouraging his box animal to approach Uri slowly. Uri walked over to NaTsu, before pouncing on it and licking NaTsu affectionately.

"OH? SO OCTOPUS-HEAD LICKED IIYA-SAN?" Ryohei stood up, shouting.

"I don't think that's it, Senpai…" Yamamoto muttered, smiling sheepishly.

* * *

Unable to clear her head of her thoughts, Iiya decided to take a walk around the headquarters, since she had a bit of free time on her hands. She was more or less done with planning the next training session, the paper work for DS55 had been settled and she had already checked in with her members to make sure their missions were well-planned and going smoothly. Lacing up her boots and grabbing her military jacket, she walked out of the DS55 headquarters, her hands in her pockets. The seasons showed signs of changing, ready to begin it's transition from autumn to winter. Leaves were beginning to fall from the trees and the breeze was chilly, causing her cheeks the flush pink and its temperature to drop. With every step she took, she could hear the leaves crunch under her feet. She stopped in her tracks, sensing a group of people coming from behind her, causing her to turn around to see who it was.

"Boss, want us to leave you two alone?"

"You scum can go ahead first. Get started on the job."

* * *

 _"_ _Boss, want us to leave you two alone?" Mammon asked._

 _"_ _You scum can go ahead first. Get started on the job."_

 _The other officers of Varia nodded, running off ahead of Xanxus and leaving him to talk with his fianceé, whom he had just spotted walking back to the Varia headquarters. Iiya glanced at the Varia officers, watching them as they sped off, before looking back to face Xanxus._

 _"_ _I just completed my mission," she informed him._

 _At that point in time, it had been a month since their engagement. Though she was unable to accept it whenever he was rude to the Ninth, the last thing she wanted was for the Ninth to worry about both of them and their relationship. Somehow, she had to make the relationship work, and butting heads with Xanxus would not help. Maybe, there was a part of him that was not as bad as she thought. Though so far, she had to admit that the only good thing about him was… Well, she hadn't come across any behaviour she deemed positive from him._

 _"_ _I didn't ask you anything." Xanxus said._

 _"_ _Yeah." Iiya replied, restraining her urge to roll her eyes at him in defiance. "I thought you wanted to say something to me."_

 _"_ _I don't recall needing to tell you anything. The old man would probably say it before me anyway."_

 _"_ _You mean the Ninth?" Iiya asked, pinching her own arm behind her back to stop herself from giving him a good punch in the face. "He didn't tell me anything today."_

 _"_ _There's some meeting for assassination squads in two months time in Japan. The old man said you're coming with me."_

 _"_ _Oh. Okay."_

 _"_ _That's all."_

 _Xanxus walked away without saying goodbye, clearly in no hurry to catch up with subordinates. At this moment, Iiya wondered if she should somewhat attempt to close the gap between them. After all, since she promised the Ninth to take care of him, she wanted to at least try to improve their relationship before telling the Ninth that she could not stand him._

 _"_ _Wait."_

 _Biting her lip and deciding to go for it, Iiya ran up to Xanxus and hugged him from behind. His eyes widened slightly from surprise, as he could feel her body pressed lightly against his back. They stood there for a brief moment, before Iiya let go of him, trying her best to hide her embarrassment and secretly hoping that she did not worsen their relationship instead._

 _"_ _Come back early."_

 _She turned around and ran off before he could say anything._

* * *

Iiya stared at Xanxus, this time with no intention to push their relationship forward. She had no reason to do so after the way he treated her and with their engagement called off, she did not want to have anything to do with him unless if was work-related. They continued glaring at each other, waiting for the other to speak. Iiya looked away from him, stepping aside to walk past him when he suddenly placed a firm grip on her shoulder.

"I'm not done talking with you yet."

"Well," Iiya replied curtly. "Neither of us were talking. Now, let go of me."

Suddenly, Iiya felt someone grab her wrist and pull her behind his back. She recognised that familiar smell and his back view, as he stood in front of her, facing Xanxus.

"Let go of her, Xanxus!"

Gokudera glared at Xanxus directly, before turning to Iiya.

"The Tenth said he wants to see you. Let's go."

Iiya nodded, shooting a sharp look at Xanxus before she followed Gokudera and returned to the Vongola mansion. She could feel his grip on her wrist tighten as they walked back together. She wondered what he was thinking at that moment, slowly prying her hand away from his, causing him to turn and face her in shock.

"You don't have to hold onto me like that."

"Sorry…" Gokudera mumbled, looking away from her.

"About just now…"

"I thought about it too."

Iiya could feel his eyes burning into hers, his voice filled with seriousness as he spoke.

"Honestly, I don't know what came over me. I thought about it, but I can't figure out why I did that."

"Same here."

"But, I do know that I feel like…" He struggled to get the words out. "I know I can trust you. I know that you understand me, not only because we're both intelligent, but because you know what I want to be. I know that I feel connected to you."

"How would you know that when we've only known each other for a week?" Iiya questioned him.

"ARGH! JUST LET ME FINISH WHAT I WANTED TO SAY!" Gokudera shouted, feeling a bit flustered as his face blushed.

Iiya nodded, letting him continue, curious about what else he could possibly want to say.

"Most importantly, I know… I know that I want to protect you." He muttered softly.

Iiya could feel herself blushing and she found herself reaching for her scarf, pulling it higher up her neck nervously.

"So… Um…" Gokudera stumbled with his words. "J-j-just let me be close to you."

"Exactly how close do you want us to be?" Iiya laughed. "You're standing quite far away from me now, Gokudera-kun!"

"Ahh!" He nearly choked on his words in shock, not expecting her to tease him that way. "Just think it as an experiment or… ARGH NEVER MIND! FORGET I SAID ANYTHING!"

Gokudera was all ready to storm off without her, blushing madly from everything he had just said and regretting his rash decision to blurt out his feelings without thinking things through rationally, when Iiya hugged him around the waist tightly.

"I can't figure out why I acted the way I did just now either…" She admitted. "So I guess this'll be our own secret experiment then."

* * *

Iiya stood before Tsuna and his guardians, ready to start off their second week of training with her. She glanced at her watch as Reborn and Dino walked into the training area, ready to help her push the guardians further and help them fulfil their hidden potential. Reborn had a serious look on his face, knowing that this week's training was much more intense than last week's, heightening the chances of injury. Yet, if the training succeeded, Tsuna and his guardians would improve by leaps and bounds.

"From this point onwards, I'll be teaching you to fight together as a family." Iiya explained. "But in order for you to do that effectively, you need to understand the way each family member fights."

"You haven't seen the results of the past week of training, have you?" Reborn asked them. "For each other."

Tsuna nodded, knowing what Reborn was referring to. The Guardians had all been training separately with Iiya for the past week, so they had no idea how much stronger their fellow Guardians were, and whether or not they had learnt any new techniques.

"Every morning, we'll be calling in different pairs to spar with each other. And the other Guardians will be seated in the observation room, to watch the progress of the fight. Each fight will have its unique set of rules," Dino explained. "And since there is an odd number of Guardians, Iiya will also be fighting."

"So let's announce the first set of pairings." Reborn spoke. "Iiya will go against Hibari. Lambo will be with Gokudera. Yamamoto will spar with Tsuna, and lastly, Ryohei will go against Chrome."

* * *

Everyone else went into the observation room, leaving Hibari and Iiya in the training area. Hibari took out his tonfas, clearly sore over his previous loss to Iiya at the start of last week.

"Kyoya, in order to win," Dino instructed him over the speakers. "you have to fulfil two objectives. Firstly, make Iiya draw her real weapon. Secondly, drive her to a corner where she is forced to surrender."

"I don't need to take orders from you," Hibari retorted, immediately going for Iiya.

Iiya trained her eyes on Hibari as she reached for the weapon hidden under her jacket. At a frightening speed, she whipped it out, stopping Hibari's attack effortlessly.

"Hmm, not bad," Reborn smiled. "Considering that she hasn't touched it since the day she resigned from Varia."

"Reborn," Tsuna asked. "What is that?"

"Ah, that's Iiya's old weapon," Reborn explained. "She only used it when she was carrying out less important missions in the Varia. Apparently, she'd rather not waste time taking out her crosscuts and using it when it wasn't necessary to go all out."

Hibari's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the unfamiliar weapon she was using. His right tonfa was trapped, bound by a silver chain. Iiya still had her eyes on him, her hands gripping the black handles tightly, holding him firmly in place.

"It's been a year since I used these, you know." Iiya smirked.

"Using her nunchucks instead of her crosscuts…." Dino grinned. "Kyoya's going to be all fired up now."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I guess there is some progress in Gokudera and Iiya's relationship? And writing the start of this chapter was funny, hopefully I did the chemistry between the characters justice . Next chapter will be focused on the fight between Iiya and Hibari :) Hibari's probably annoyed that she isn't going full out on him from the start LOL!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review to tell me what you think :) Stay turned and thank you so much for reading! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7: DRAWING CLOSER**

Iiya tightened her grip on the handles of her nunchucks, before using her foot to slam Hibari's wrist to the floor, forcing him to let go of the tonfa in his hand. She held him in that position for a split second, making sure that he was unable to budge. Hibari struggled to free himself from his restraints, but failed to do so, as Iiya bent down and swept her free leg across. At the exact same moment, she released her nunchucks, allowing her kick to send Hibari across the room. Her attack had knocked him right on his cheek, as blood began to drip from the corner of his mouth. He used his sleeve to wipe his mouth, evidently dissatisfied that she had gotten the first strike in their rematch. Iiya glanced at him, noticing the killer intent in his eyes, but well aware that he was not giving it his best yet. For someone who had unlimited potential, Iiya had every intention to keep pushing him to move better, strike quicker, yet maintain his willingness to learn. She sighed and looked at Dino, before turning her back to him and walking towards the door. Hearing the rapid steps coming after her, Iiya let out another sigh.

"You're a little too loud, Hibari," she sighed.

Swinging her nunchuck backwards with her right arm, the chains of her nunchuck looped around Hibari's wrists, securing them tightly. Gracefully, she spun around and dropped her heel on his head, knocking him down to the ground, his wrists still bound.

"Iiya!" Dino shouted over the speaker. "Control yourself a little!"

"Oops!" She laughed. "I guess it feels kind of nostalgic using these."

Suddenly, she heard the sound of her chains being ripped apart violently. She smiled, knowing Hibari had broken out of his restraints, knowing he had finally firmed up his resolve to fight her.

"First objective, complete!" Iiya shouted over to Dino. "Time please!"

"Six minutes and forty-five seconds!" Dino replied.

"Good!"

Iiya kept her crosscuts and began walking out of the room.

"Another lesson for you here, Hibari," Iiya smiled. "You need to be a little more patient. Good work today, we'll continue tomorrow."

Tsuna watched as Iiya left the room, leaving Hibari standing there completely stunned. _"Hibari-san really is amazing… He got Iiya-san so quickly…"_ He thought. Hibari huffed and looked up at Dino, shooting him a glare before deciding to leave the room.

"I promised Kyoya that he'd get to fight her at her maximum today," Dino grinned sheepishly. "He's gonna get me for this for sure…"

* * *

"I can't believe I have to fight the Stupid Cow…" Gokudera muttered, running his fingers through his hair in exasperation.

 _"_ _Yup, he looks good today,"_ Iiya thought to herself briefly, before giving herself an invisible slap on the face for getting distracted momentarily. She was not too sure of what to think about their current relationship status, as he did mention that it was just an 'experiment'. However, it did warm her heart to know that he felt the same way as her, and that he wanted to protect her. Announcing the conditions of the fight, Iiya told them that Lambo was allowed the first strike in this battle, and that for each side to win, they had to remain conscious and be able to continue fighting by the end of one hour.

"Go for it, Lambo!" Iiya cheered him on, partially aware that Gokudera would possibly get agitated by her words.

"Lambo-san is going to defeat you, Stupidera!" Lambo cackled, holding onto his horns tightly.

"Stupid cow!" Gokudera shouted.

 _"_ _Why is it that the Stupid cow gets encouragement and I don't?!"_ He thought furiously. _"I definitely need to ask her about this later!"_

An hour later, the timer went off, signifying the end of the match. Iiya sighed, seeing that the two of them only ended up arguing and fighting each other like they usually did. The most action that happened was Lambo getting flustered and reaching inside his hair, pulling out hand grenades and throwing them at Gokudera. Since the grenades were not even thrown with much skill, Gokudera had no problem dodging them, hence he had no need to defend against them seriously. Frustrated on the inside, Iiya stood up from her seat calmly, telling the guardians to take a break for lunch and resume their individual trainings in the afternoon, leaving the other matches for tomorrow. Gokudera looked up, noticing that something was off about her mood, making a mental note to look for her after dinner that day.

* * *

Iiya stepped into the bathtub, filled with warm water that went up to her calves. She sat down and soaked her face towel in the water, before squeezing soap into the water, forming numerous bubbles. Folding the towel up, she relaxed her head against the wall and placed the towel on her forehead, recalling the day's events and reflecting upon each one of them. Having been a boss since the age of fourteen, she was accustomed to the stress and frustration involved in the job, finding her own ways to relieve her stress while improving the situation at hand. Suddenly, her ears picked up the sound of the door to her office creaking, interrupting her train of thoughts. She contemplated standing up and checking it out, unsure if it was a threat to her safety. Yet, the bath water was so comfortable that she had no desire to leave it.

"Iiya-san?"

Iiya raised her eyebrows, knowing immediately who that voice belonged to.

"Drop the formalities and we'll talk," she spoke, pretending to sound annoyed. She could hear him sighing from where she was.

"Stop kidding around! Where the hell are you?"

"I'm in here."

"T-t-the bathroom?" She could hear him stuttering nervously, forcing her to stifle her laughter. "Umm m-m-maybe I s-s-should…"

"Just come in already," she snapped, still keeping up her act. "It's not like you'll actually be able to see anything. The door isn't locked."

"O-o-okay!"

She put her elbows up on the side of the tub and rested her chin on her hands, turning her body to face him. The door to the bathroom opened slowly and he walked in step by step, his hands covering his eyes. At that point, Iiya could not help it any longer, bursting into laughter.

"WHAT?" He shouted at her, his cheeks burning into a shade of red.

"IS THAT REALLY NECESSARY?" She laughed.

"Well…"

"How do you expect yourself to talk to me properly if you're gonna cover your eyes like that?" She giggled. "Do you want me to get out of the tub and remove your hands from your eyes?"

"N-N-NO!" He retorted. "I… Alright."

He slowly uncovered his eyes and opened them, only to see her smiling face looking up at him.

"Hayato, you're blushing."

"A-a-are you making fun of me?" He grumbled.

"Are you gonna stand that far away from me?" She replied smartly.

Sighing and looking away, Gokudera slowly approached her and sat down on a dry spot on the floor mat. Iiya smiled and looked at his blushing face.

"I don't think you came looking for me because you wanted to take a bath together, right?" She said in a serious tone.

"Obviously not!" He huffed. "I just wanted to you know, check on you. I noticed you didn't seem too happy after my match with Lambo."

Iiya's face immediately fell upon hearing his words. She bit her lip nervously, unsure about whether or not she should confide in him.

"Just be frank with me already!"

"Okay fine," she sighed. "I'm just a little troubled with Lambo's progress. I don't want to train his older self because that just defeats the purpose entirely. I don't want Tsuna's family to rely on his older self. Lambo needs to find his own focus and his own resolve to fight properly as his current self. If I can't unleash that within him, then I'd have failed as a tutor to him."

"Sorry." He whispered.

"Huh? What for?" Iiya asked in bewilderment.

"My bickering with the Stupid cow didn't help either. As the Tenth's right-hand man, I should've considered that fact and acted differently."

Iiya's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting him to say that. Giving a satisfied laugh, her expression softened instantly, knowing he seemed to have reflected on himself. She pulled his face close to her and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek, catching him completely off-guard.

"Good that you know that."

Gokudera looked at her, lost in his own thoughts and left in a daze. He could not comprehend why he felt so intrigued to know more about her. He could not comprehend why he felt so enamoured with her, even though they had only just met. He could not comprehend why he cared so much about what she thought about him, even though he could not care less about anyone else's opinion of him (aside from Tsuna's). Instantly, as if the answer had revealed itself to him, what Bianchi had told him previously surfaced in his head.

 _"_ _Our father fell in love with your mother at first sight."_

 _"_ _At first sight?"_ He wondered, recalling the day he first met her. He remembered how impressed he was with her skill and her intelligence on that day. However, over the past week, he could sense the kindness in her eyes towards everyone. She was different from the girls in middle school, who chased after him simply because he was 'good-looking' or 'extremely smart'. She was definitely different. He cupped her cheek with his hand, softening his gaze as he leaned in to kiss her. After he drew back, Iiya stared at him for a moment, before covering his eyes with her hands.

"Don't turn around!" She said, with a hint of embarrassment in her voice. He could hear the movements of the water in the bathtub as it drained out, and the sound of her footsteps rushing past him, before she uncovered his eyes. Iiya got dressed and threw on her oversized sweater, before pulling Gokudera up from his spot.

"Just so you know," she muttered, still feeling embarrassed, with her hand placed on the doorknob. "I thought… I thought you looked really good today."

"ARGH!" He grumbled, half-annoyed that he was completely flustered around her, as he pulled her close to him. "Stop saying stuff like that!"

All of a sudden, the door to Iiya's office creaked open, causing both Iiya and Gokudera to freeze in place.

"Iiya-san? Are you here?"

"J-j-juudaime?!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I feel that I need to work on my writing for action scenes a little, somehow it doesn't develop as well as it does for comedic/romantic scenes :( Next chapter, we'll pick up where we left off and continue Hibari and Iiya's rematch!

I still have rehearsals all day tomorrow, so hopefully I can get the next chapter up fast!

Shoutout to Echo-Of-Stories for giving me my 3rd review :) Thank you so much!

Please review and tell me your feedback :) Stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8: CLOSER THAN YOU THINK**

"Tsuna?" Iiya called out, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

"Reborn said I should come and check on our progress with you regularly, so I just wanted to ask how everyone was doing," he explained.

"Oh, I see!" She laughed nervously, shooting Gokudera a stare. "Umm listen, I'm kind of halfway through my bath right now, so maybe you wanna come back a little later?"

"Well… I can just wait…"

"I'll look for you once I'm done!" Iiya cut him off before he could make any further suggestions.

"Okay then, Iiya-san," Tsuna replied. "See you later!"

Once she heard the closing of the door, Iiya heaved a sigh of relief, gingerly opening the bathroom door and exiting. Gokudera followed behind her, still a little shaken that Tsuna had entered at such an awkward moment.

"Umm… I guess you'd better leave before Tsuna gets back…" Iiya mumbled, a part of her wanting to spend more time with him.

"Yeah…" He sighed, still feeling the awkwardness from the situation they were just in.

"Can I… Ask you something though?" She asked, walking a little closer to him.

"Yeah, just ask me."

"Are we going to at least tell Tsuna?"

"What do you mean by that?" He raised an eyebrow, realising that such a question had never occurred to him. "What do we need to tell him?"

"As in," Iiya paused for a moment, wondering what was the best way to phrase her thoughts and convey them to him. "Are you going to tell him about us?"

"Is there a need to tell Juudaime?" He asked, his tone suddenly showing slight hints of anger.

"Depending on what you perceive our relationship to be," Iiya said. "You might have to tell him."

"Why does he need to know that?" Gokudera snapped at her, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking away. "And what do you mean by that? Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?"

"I don't know, it just occurred to me!" She retorted, a little annoyed that he was losing his temper all of a sudden. "And of course he needs to know that! He's your boss! Unless you're telling me that you don't take anything between us to be serious?"

"WHAT?"

"You'd have to tell him sooner or later! You know that it's an unspoken rule that any relationships must be approved by the boss!"

"I don't want Juudaime to think that the Vongola isn't a priority to me anymore! If he knows about you and I don't do my work well enough to suit his standards, the first thing he'll think is that I'm unable to separate my personal and work life, and lose his trust in me! I've worked hard for this ever since I met him! Being his right-hand man is more important than you!" He blurted out.

Iiya could already feel herself on the verge of tears, but she was determined not to cry. _"Now I can't tell if he takes this relationship as seriously as I do. If it didn't even occur to him to tell Tsuna, it probably means that he doesn't treat it as a serious relationship."_

"Okay."

Gokudera froze in his place, after processing what he had said and her reply to him. As good as she was at hiding her feelings, he could sense the hurt in her voice, and her eyes seemed to glisten slightly, as if she was holding back her tears. At that instant, he knew he had done something wrong. He wanted to protect her and be close to her, yet he had unknowingly hurt her instead. He reached out to hug her and kissed her forehead, expecting her to respond in some way, but she just stood there emotionlessly. She did not reach out to hug him back, but pushed him away instead.

"Don't touch me that way if you don't mean it."

Iiya turned away and faced her back to him, making it evident that she had nothing else to say to him for today. He sighed, knowing there was no chance she would listen to anything he had to say or respond to anything he did. He walked away from her, feeling an unexplainable, physical ache in his heart that he had never felt before in his life. Closing the door and walking back to his room, he lit his cigarette and puffed it, hoping a smoke would make him feel better, yet it did not seem to have any effect on him.

"Shit," He cursed to himself silently. "Getting all worked up like that over a girl… You've got to be kidding me."

* * *

Iiya sat down in her chair and sent a message to Tsuna, telling him she would report on their progress tomorrow after consolidating their information from today's training sessions. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to gulp her tears back, refusing to cry. Showing signs of weakness was not something she was used to, and she refused to ever get used to such a feeling. She reached for a cigarette and lit it up, watching it burn as the scent wafted into the air. But the scent of cigarettes just reminded her of him, and she immediately put it out, dumping it in the ashtray. Deciding to distract herself with work, she was about to grab the folder on her desk when she heard a slight tapping noise on her window. She turned around to see Hibird perched outside her window, the cute yellow bird tapping its beak gently on the window pane. She smiled, opening her window and reaching for it, only to see her hand pass through it.

"An illusion?" She muttered to herself, instinctively reaching for her crosscuts once she figured out that something was wrong.

However, before she could grab both crosscuts, she felt something yank her out of the window and upwards, giving her time to only grab one crosscut.

"Shi shi shi," A familiar laugh was heard. "Good job, Mammon."

"The boss paid me well for this, I had to do a good job." Mammon snickered.

 _"_ _Varia?"_ She thought.

* * *

 _Iiya stormed off again, after Xanxus lost his temper at his subordinates as usual. At that point in time, she was terribly sick of having to deal with him and his violent tendencies, even though it had only been three months. She already could not imagine having to put up with him if they were to go through with the marriage. She had returned to her room in DS55's headquarters, determined to stay there for a while till her anger had subsided. If it could even subside, that is. Walking out to her balcony for a moment, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her and turned around instantly._

 _"_ _Shi shi shi," Belphegor laughed. "Boss doesn't like it when you run away without his permission."_

 _"_ _Doesn't running away itself not require the need for his permission, Belphegor?" Iiya snapped._

 _"_ _Well, Iiya-chan, you have to come back with us, or the Boss will punish you even more severely."_

 _"_ _I'll come back when I'm ready."_

 _"_ _Nope, it has to be now."_

 _Suddenly, Iiya felt a stinging sensation at the back of her neck. Her knees buckled, losing all its strength, as she fell to the floor. Her sight blurred, slowly fading off into the darkness._

 _"_ _Sleep tight, Iiya-san," She could hear Levi's voice. "We're bringing you back to the Boss now."_

* * *

"Why are you two here?" Iiya questioned them.

"The boss asked us to bring you back," Mammon said.

"I'm not going back," Iiya replied firmly. "And I don't have to anyway. I'm not engaged to your boss anymore. He doesn't have the right to tell me where to go and I sure don't have a need to be near him."

"Well then," Belphegor took out his knives. "We need to use force then."

Belphegor's knives flew rapidly towards her and Iiya retaliated quickly, swiping her weapon quickly to knock the knives away and cut the strings at the same time. He sent more knives towards her, but with only one weapon in her hands, she had left her entire left side open to his offenses, as the knives sliced the skin off her arms, drawing blood. Cringing in pain, she forced herself to keep fighting, knowing her chances of winning were low if she could not even defend herself to the best of her abilities. Suddenly, she felt something hard against her head, instinctively knowing that Mammon had probably used his illusions to knock her out, taking advantage of the fact that she had been fully focused on defending herself against Belphegor. She could feel herself losing consciousness gradually, fear creeping into her mind as she wondered what would become of her later.

* * *

Tsuna and his Guardians gathered at the table for breakfast, as they usually did every morning. Everyone was exhausted from training, yet they knew that they had to keep their focus in order to keep growing stronger, even if there was no threat to the Family yet. All of a sudden, they heard a knock on the main door to the mansion. Yamamoto stood up from his seat, leaving the table briefly to check it out, with the others remaining seated.

"TSUNA!" Yamamoto shouted. "COME HERE NOW!"

"HUH?" Tsuna shrieked. "What's wrong?"

Tsuna and the other Guardians, along with Reborn, who had just came down from the staircase, rushed to the door, wondering what had cause Yamamoto to react in such a way. Everyone gasped in shock, instantly understanding why Yamamoto was in such a panic, once they saw who was lying in front of him, completely unconscious at their doorstep. Her shirt was completely torn and tattered, revealing wounds all over her arms and burns on her neck. There were even more burns on her legs and half her face was covered in her own blood. It was an absolutely gruesome sight.

At this point, Gokudera's hands were trembling with horror, as he dropped to his knees and slowly cradled her in his arms. He put his fingers on her wrist, checking for her pulse, noticing how faint and slow it was. Ryohei immediately used Kangaryuu, in order to keep her alive, while Chrome rushed off to look for Dino and get medical help, while Reborn stared at the blood spilled on the ground.

"Seems like she left us an obvious clue, Tsuna," Reborn sighed.

Tsuna turned his head to look at Reborn, before noticing the words freshly written on the ground.

"X… X…" Tsuna muttered. "Xanxus."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

This was definitely a more serious chapter compared to the previous one. It's time to finally shed some light on what happened between Iiya and Xanxus, and also focus more on Tsuna's family, since Iiya is going to be unconscious for the next chapter.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the story so far! Do leave me a review to tell me what you think :) Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more :D


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9: NO NEED FOR REASONS**

It had been two weeks since Tsuna and his Guardians found Iiya at their doorstep, covered in blood after being assaulted. They continued to train under Reborn and Dino's guidance, following the plans that Iiya had drawn up for them prior to her meeting them. Even though training took their minds off things, it had clearly impacted their focus. It was weird not having Iiya around to train them and laugh with them. In fact, it was almost uncomfortable. Dino's subordinates were still in the midst of collating information and investigating the attack, determined to shed light on what had happened to her, and whether or not her past with Xanxus had anything to do with it. Reborn had contacted a few of his acquaintances, trying to uncover the truth behind her history with Xanxus. They wanted to speak privately with the Ninth, yet they feared for his health and could not predict how he would take the news about her.

The mansion was filled with a deadly silence, being the quietest it had ever been ever since she began training them. The usually joyful atmosphere was completely gone, most evidently in the dining room. Her chair was left empty, drawing a defeated sigh from Tsuna. Everyone found it difficult to touch their food, either poking at it weakly or leaving it untouched.

"It's quiet to the extreme…" Ryohei muttered, using his indoor voice for the very first time since stepping foot into the mansion.

"It is…" Chrome looked down at her food, showing no intention to touch it.

"Where's Iiya, Tsuna?" Lambo asked, tugging at Tsuna's sleeve. "I want her to play with me!"

"Lambo…" Tsuna sighed, knowing he could not keep the truth from Lambo for long, yet unable to form the words to explain to him what had happened. "I… I don't know."

Gokudera had been sitting at his table, his head bowed down, holding his emotions in the entire time.

"I'm sorry, Juudaime, I'm not hungry."

He stood up from his seat abruptly and walked off, leaving the other Guardians confused and following his back view with their eyes.

"Hey Tsuna, Gokudera hasn't been eating or sleeping well, has he?" Yamamoto asked.

"Yeah…" Tsuna sighed. "I didn't think he would be the one to take this the hardest."

Gokudera walked down the hallway, staggering as if he were in a daze. Once he was a considerable distance away from the dining room, he slammed his fist against the wall, venting out all the emotions he had been holding in, including the tears he had been holding back.

* * *

 _"_ _Xanxus… Did this?" He asked, still holding her tightly in his arms._

 _Iiya was bleeding profusely, her wounds still fresh. Judging by the trail of blood leading up to the door, Gokudera was sure that the trail would lead to Varia's headquarters, and that Iiya had probably struggled to escape and make it back here. Her sole crosscut was lying on the ground beside her, covered in blood, telling him that she had fought her way back in an attempt to reach safety._

 _"_ _We need to find out what happened," Tsuna spoke seriously. "Iiya-san doesn't deserve to be hurt this way."_

 _Gokudera stayed frozen in his position, even as the Vongola medical team arrived and took her away to the emergency room. Clenching his fists in pure rage, he stood up, ready to storm off._

 _"_ _I'M GONNA KILL THAT BASTARD!"_

 _"_ _STOP IT, GOKUDERA!" Yamamoto held his impulsive friend back. "YOU CAN'T JUST STORM IN AND FIGHT THOSE GUYS!"_

 _"_ _JUST TRY AND STOP ME!" Gokudera tried to shake Yamamoto off, forcing Reborn to hit him with the back of his pistol, knocking him out instantly._

* * *

Yamamoto scanned his Vongola ring against the system, opening the door to the top secret medical facility hidden within the mansion. He stopped outside the room at the end of the hallway, peeping inside through the window. As expected, he saw the same sight he had been seeing for the past two weeks - Gokudera sitting at Iiya's bedside, his fingers intertwined with hers. The heart monitor was beating steadily and her injuries had been treated and bandaged carefully. However, she had not regained consciousness, her eyes remained closed and her body still rendered motionless from the severity of the attack she was dealt. Carefully, Yamamoto opened the door to her room, causing Gokudera to turn around and let go of her hand in response.

"Hey Gokudera, are you ok?" He asked.

"It's none of your business," Gokudera mumbled, sounding more depressed than angry.

"I noticed that you've been coming here everyday, even in between trainings."

"What of it?"

"You and Iiya-san…" Yamamoto said, approaching Gokudera slowly, mentally prepared that he might get angry for asking. "You guys aren't just normal friends right?"

"Mind your own business, baseball idiot," he snapped.

"Look, I'm just trying to look out for you," Yamamoto huffed, annoyed by Gokudera's lukewarm response. "You've been moping around for the past two weeks! You aren't even focused on training and you can't even eat or sleep properly! Everyone's worried!"

"HOW CAN I FOCUS WHEN SHE'S LIKE THIS?"

Gokudera's sudden outburst left Yamamoto in shock. For someone who did not express himself with his words very well, Gokudera was showing a lot of emotion today, standing up from his chair so forcefully that it toppled over, before crumbling to his knees. Yamamoto knelt down to console his friend, who had been reduced to a shaking, sobbing mess, blurting out feelings he had never heard of before.

"I failed to protect her. And just the night before, I made her angry at me."

"Huh?" Yamamoto looked confused. "What did you do?"

"I told her that being a right-hand man to Juudaime was more important than her."

"Gokudera!" Yamamoto exclaimed. "No wonder she got angry at you! You'd better apologise to her when she wakes up!"

"If she does…" Gokudera glanced at her sadly. "The doctors don't know when she'll wake up. They said it's all up to her now."

Yamamoto put his arm around Gokudera's shoulder, trying to calm him down.

"I don't even know why I feel like this. It's not like I knew her that long, yet I'm losing my focus completely," Gokudera admitted.

"That's because you love her, Hayato."

Gokudera looked up, recognising that voice instantly, feeling his stomach on the verge of churning. As he expected, Bianchi stood at the doorway, her face covered by a pair of goggles, much to his relief. Reborn and Tsuna followed after her, closing the door behind them.

"Why are you here?" Gokudera grumbled, looking away.

"I called her here," Reborn piped up.

"Yeah," Bianchi sighed. "Apparently, my little brother hasn't been acting like himself these past two weeks. Still as weak as ever, Hayato?"

"Shut up!"

"I saw the way you looked at her just now, Hayato. You love her."

Gokudera looked over at Iiya, who was still unconscious, his gaze instantly softening, worlds apart from the usual cold stare he gave to people.

"Just like how I love Reborn."

 _"_ _She went off topic so quickly!"_ Tsuna thought to himself.

"Anyways, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna tried his best to give a smile. "Reborn told me about the rules in the mafia world… You don't have to worry, I won't interfere with your relationship with Iiya-san."

"Juudaime…" Gokudera looked up at Tsuna, his eyes glistening.

"To be honest, I'm glad you've found someone you like, Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna kept up his cheerfulness, not wanting to see his friend so broken. "And I know that Iiya-san will take good care of you."

Gokudera looked at all of the people surrounding him and could not help but give a little smile.

"Thanks… All of you."

* * *

It was already past midnight, and everyone else had left the room except for Gokudera. After being forced by Bianchi to confess how everything had started between them, both Tsuna and Bianchi had given Gokudera their approval, and Yamamoto promised to keep their relationship a secret until they were ready to tell everyone. He sighed, his hand still holding onto hers firmly, wondering when she would come to. Uri had somehow crept into the room and sat on her bed, licking her hand affectionately, as if she understood what was going on. Too tired to fight with his box animal, Gokudera let Uri remain next to Iiya, sleeping all curled up on her bed. He pondered on Bianchi's words endlessly, wondering if she really was right about his feelings towards her.

"What do you think, Uri?" He asked his box animal, who was fast asleep.

Iiya's face looked so peaceful, aside from the occasional tossing and turning of head, as if she was having a bad dream. She had been doing that more often lately, and Gokudera was not sure whether it was a good or bad thing. Regardless, he ran his fingers through her hair gently, stroking her soft orange hair with his free hand, with his other hand holding hers still. The more he saw her, the more he felt he was unable to let go and leave her side. Whatever it was, he hoped that she would wake up as soon as possible. He brought her hand to his lips and rested his head on her bed.

"For once, I think Sis might be right…" He sighed, his eyes fixed on her the entire time. "Even though I don't want to admit it, she knows me well enough… "

"I'm gonna say this once. And the next time I'm saying it is when you wake up… So you'd better wake up fast."

He felt his hand grip hers firmly, as if it was instinct.

"I… I love you."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
**

Admittedly, this wasn't an easy chapter to write. I was quite afraid of making Gokudera appear out of character, hopefully it was ok. I felt that there was a need to address how their relationship was left ambiguous and without any titles involved, as well as the fact that no other character knew about it, even though they seemed close previously. I also wanted to bring in the fact that Gokudera has always been so consumed by his goals that he's unsure if there was any more room for other priorities.

Hopefully, Iiya will be awake next chapter! I initially wanted to write about the truth between Iiya and Xanxus, but I feel that it would be better for Iiya to reveal it herself. Plus, I really wanted to write this scene :(

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and how the story is going so far. Please review and tell me what you think! Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more :) P.S. Can't believe that's 2 chapters in 1 day! OMG!


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10: THE BEGINNINGS OF TRUTH**

Feeling something on his head, Gokudera slowly opened his eyes and sat up immediately, thinking Iiya had woken up. Yet, to his disappointment, it was only Uri who had woken up, sitting comfortably on his head.

"Uri…" He grumbled.

Reluctantly, he left Iiya's room, heading back to his room to wash up and get a change of clothing, mentally preparing himself for his training. Just as he left her room, Bianchi walked into the medical facility.

"Focus on your training, Hayato," she said. "I'll look after her for now."

"Thanks," he mumbled, before heading upstairs, with Uri following behind him.

 _"_ _Seriously… The things Iiya does to me… I wonder how she does it, making me open up to her almost as quickly as I did with Juudaime…"_

* * *

Gokudera stood in the empty training room, facing Lambo, with the rest of the Guardians in the observation room, watching their unfinished match. Gokudera had been struggling with getting Lambo to fight him seriously, unwilling to attack him at his maximum strength as he feared that he would injure him unintentionally. However, they had been stuck at this point for so long, leaving him no choice but to get serious, even if Lambo would not do it. Getting out his new Sistema C.A.I., Gokudera decided to try one of his older attacks on Lambo, testing to see if his strength had increased since the last time he used it.

A burst of Storm flames went flying to Lambo at an astonishingly fast speed, at least thrice as fast as it used to be. Gokudera smiled, seeing how combining the Sun and Cloud flames had helped its speed. Using the Cloud's propagation factor, the Storm flames had divided itself quickly to form numerous small tubes, yet keeping the same outward appearance as the old Flame Arrow. Combined with the Sun flames' activation factor, the tubes of Storm flames hidden inside could travel at a faster speed, accelerating towards the target and allowing the attack to have a greater impact and offensive power.

"Flame Arrow, Version Cloud."

Lambo was thrown against the wall of the training area, due to the speed and force of the attack. He slowly crawled up, clearly on the verge of crying, as his whole body was stinging in pain from the impact. Shaking with anger, Lambo reached out and held his horns firmly, finally showing signs of getting serious.

"Stupidera!" He whined. "Lambo-san is angry!"

Green sparks of electricity began to fly from his horns, getting stronger and stronger as tears began to fall from his eyes.

"T-t-thunder set!" He cried.

His horns began to release a massive amount of lightning, forcing Gokudera to protect himself with Sistema C.A.I.. The rain attributes in the loops struggled against the lightning, attempting to tranquilise it. Most of the lightning was tranquilised, but a small amount managed to pass through the screen of storm flames, hitting Gokudera squarely in the head, grazing his forehead and causing it to bleed. He smiled, glad that Lambo had finally found his resolution.

At this exact moment, he noticed Bianchi running into the observation room, panting and puffing. She appeared to be saying something, causing everyone to rise from their seats and run out of the room.

"Gokudera," Reborn spoke into the speakers. "Stop here today. We're going to the medical facility now."

Hastily, Gokudera ran to pick Lambo up in his arms, before running to the medical facility as quickly as he could.

* * *

He threw the door open and ran to her side, dropping to his knees instantly once he held her hand. He could not care less if anyone was watching him. He did not care if they knew about their relationship. What mattered the most to him now, at that moment in time, was her.

"Idiot." He muttered to himself, holding in his tears. "You idiot. Iiya, you stupid, stupid idiot!"

"Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna walked over to his friend's side slowly.

"Gokudera…" Yamamoto sighed, shaking his head. "That wasn't what you were supposed to say!"

"Really, Hayato? The first thing you do is call me an idiot?"

Iiya slapped his hand away and smacked him right in the forehead, making sure to avoid contact with the wound he had just gotten from fighting Lambo. Gokudera put his hand to his forehead in disbelief, unable to take in the overwhelming emotions he was feeling right now.

"Actually, I would have chosen to kick you in the face," she grumbled, sitting up in her bed. "But my legs are hurting too much right now. But what's with that on your forehead? I'm sure that wasn't done by me…"

She swept his hair aside, looking at the wound he had received on his forehead.

"IIYA!" Lambo chirped, jumping onto the bed and hugging her. "It was all Lambo-san! Lambo-san used the attack you taught and defeated Stupidera!"

"Stupid cow!" Gokudera retorted. "I didn't lose to you! If anyone was winning, it was me! Just look at yourself!"

"You managed to land a hit on him?" Iiya smiled. "Good job, Lambo. I'm buying you a bag of candy once I recover, alright?"

* * *

After a while of chatting with everyone, Tsuna and his Guardians decided to leave the room first to prepare lunch together, leaving Gokudera and Iiya alone together. Somehow, Iiya had persuaded Gokudera to take her out for a walk, claiming that she was tired of being cooped up in the room for so long and her legs needed some sort of activity. Linking arms and holding onto him, she slowly made her way out of the medical facility and into the backyard. They sat down together on the steps at the back door, letting the winter breeze sweep past their faces. Iiya remained silent, closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder, still clinging onto his arm tightly.

"Oi…" Gokudera mumbled. "Aren't you cold?"

"Not when you're here with me."

Gokudera found himself blushing instinctively, taking out his scarf and wrapping it around her neck.

"I'm sorry for saying what I said."

"It's alright. I know you didn't really mean it."

"You know me well, don't you?"

"Guess so."

Iiya sighed, reaching out to him and giving him a peck on the lips.

"It was obvious that you suck with words, anyway…"

"Oi! Just because you're injured doesn't mean you can insult me like that!" He pinched her cheek playfully, drawing a laugh from Iiya.

"But…" Iiya smiled, leaning her forehead on his shoulder. "That's exactly the way I like you."

Gokudera's eyes widened at her words, breaking out into a slight smile and drawing closer to her, such that his lips were right next to her ear.

"I love you."

Iiya looked up instantly, slightly shocked by his sudden confession. She faced him, pausing for a moment to take in what she had just heard.

"You… love me..?"

"Yeah."

"Wait, Hayato…" She struggled with her words and emotions. "'Love' is quite a strong word…"

"I know." He admitted, not looking away from her for a single second. "I practically lost my mind over you the entire time you were unconscious. I'm sorry I took so long to realise it."

He took a deep breath.

"But yeah, I do. I love you. I love you so much I'd give anything to make sure you're safe."

"Hayato…"

"ARGH, THAT WAS SO EMBARRASSING!" He exclaimed, his face reddening all over again. "I SOUND SO GROSS!"

He was on the verge of running off in bashfulness when Iiya hugged him around his waist, not letting him go.

"I love you too."

Iiya held her breath as Gokudera drew closer and closer to her face, tilting his head slightly and parting his lips, kissing her passionately to make up for the two weeks they had lost together. He was holding her so tightly that it hurt her slightly, but Iiya was not bothered by it, her arms hugging him around his neck. This was probably the closest they had ever been since they had first met, and Iiya almost felt suffocated by him, but she had missed the smell of his cigarettes and the touch of his skin so much. She climbed onto him slowly and sat on his lap, as Gokudera backed up against the wall next to the door, and she put each of her legs next to each of his sides. She ran her slender fingers past his cheeks and towards his ears, completely lost in him as he slid his hands down her back and her legs, still kissing her.

* * *

"UGH, REBORN!" Tsuna shrieked. "WHY DO YOU WANT ME TO SEE THIS?"

"Gokudera could get together with a girl in less than a month. And how long have you liked Kyoko?" Reborn questioned him. "You really are No-Good Tsuna!"

"THAT'S TOTALLY UNRELATED! BESIDES, THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S GOKUDERA-KUN!"

"His popularity with girls has nothing to do with that! The Vongola Family would love to get to know their boss' wife sooner or later!"

"W-W-W-WIFE?!"

* * *

Iiya drew back slowly, her eyes still fixed on Gokudera's crystal green irises. He seemed a little taken aback by her retreat.

"S-s-sorry, did I do something wrong?" He asked, taking his hands off her immediately, thinking he had hurt her.

"No, I just remembered that I need to tell you something. It's about Xanxus."

"Xanxus..?"

"I need to tell you why he attacked me. But for you to understand that, I have to start from the very beginning. Remember when Reborn told you that my parents died when I was a kid?"

* * *

 _Iiya stared at the gun pointed right under her chin, knowing that it would be best to stay still, especially considering how angry he was right now._

 _"_ _You finally came back from your so-called missions, huh?" He questioned her, jamming his gun further against her chin, to the point that she almost could not breathe._

 _"_ _Setting up a new organisation within the Vongola can't be done just by sitting down in a chair and drinking wine, Xanxus," she snapped back at him._

 _"_ _Why won't you quit?" He removed his gunpoint from her chin and slammed the back of his hand against her face, knocking her to the floor._

 _"_ _I've had it with you, Xanxus!" She screamed. "You've hurt my subordinates within the Varia and the personnel coming into the new organisation! What more could you possibly want?"_

 _He grabbed her by her shirt and threw her against the wall single-handedly, her body hitting the ground with a loud thump. She was too tired to retaliate and even if she had the energy, she knew that trying to fight him at her current strength could end in her death._

 _"_ _You."_

 _Snatching away the pendant her parents had given her prior to their deaths, Iiya gasped in horror as the chain around her neck broke apart. She clenched her fists and ran towards the pendant as he threw it up in the air. However, just before she could catch it, a burst of flames rushed out from his gun, obliterating the pendant into nothingness._

 _"_ _THAT WAS THE LAST THING THEY LEFT BEHIND FOR ME, YOU BASTARD!"_

 _Blinded with her own anger, Iiya drew her weapon and rushed towards him, only to have him grab her by the neck and throw her out of the window. The glass window shattered as Iiya's body flew out in mid-air, before falling to the ground helplessly._

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Finally getting to the truth behind Iiya's past with Xanxus! This was a longer chapter than I expected it to be though. I'll be continuing the flashback next chapter to complete the history behind them :)

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the way the story is going so far! Do leave a review or any feedback for the story :) Thank you for reading and I'll update as soon as possible!


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11: THE FULL PICTURE**

"No way…" Tsuna muttered to himself, completely floored by what Iiya had told him.

Tsuna, his Guardians, Dino, Reborn and Iiya had gathered in the meeting room at her request, as she decided to reveal the truth behind what happened between her and Xanxus. Dino's face darkened instantly, not expecting her experience to be that horrific. Her memories of her parents had meant a lot to her, since she had lost them at a very young age. Having Xanxus destroy the very last thing that they gave to her right in front of her eyes must have been a traumatising sight, especially since he knew how well she had taken care of that necklace.

"But still… Throwing you out of the window?" Dino was already shaking in fury.

"Well, that's what he does when I make him angry, apparently. There's also options like throwing pottery at me, if you'd like," Iiya spoke, her tone showing hints of anger and sarcasm.

"And then that was when you decided you had enough."

"That was just the trigger that firmed up my decision to leave," Iiya explained. "Though before that, he did other things too. He sabotaged my subordinates missions' when I was in the Varia. They either died or sustained such critical injuries that they were never able to work again. After that, while I was setting up DS55, he tried to threaten those who were to be transferred there and made sure they would never work for me. If not for the Ninth's and CEDEF's interference, I daresay I would've failed in setting it up."

"What's the point of going to such an extent though?" Yamamoto asked.

"He probably was trying to send me on a guilt trip, I guess…" Iiya shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows what he was thinking. Whatever it is, I wasn't about to let him hurt anyone for my sake. So once the foundation of DS55 was solidified and it officially became an organisation within the Vongola, I travelled to different parts of the world to personally train all my subordinates, so that if the Varia ever assaulted them, they would be able to withstand it. If they could withstand it, then Xanxus will know that getting to me through my subordinates wouldn't work. But of course, that was just based on my own assumption of his character."

"In other words, you drew him to yourself," Gokudera drew his conclusion to her explanation rather quickly, causing Iiya to gulp nervously.

"Yeah."

"Even though there was a possibility that he would still go after your subordinates?" Reborn asked.

"Yeah," Iiya admitted. "But at that point in time, I didn't have much of a choice. His target was me after all. My subordinates were just a means to get to me. If getting through them didn't work, he'd come to me directly. For him, the process didn't matter. What mattered most was the result."

* * *

 _"What the…"_

 _Iiya jumped out of bed, her heart still palpitating quickly from the nightmare she just had. Taking several deep breaths, she tried to calm herself down, but she was still shaken from what she had just seen in her dreams. Beads of cold sweat ran down the sides of her forehead and her hands were trembling in fear. She was in Spain to train the new intelligence and combat personnel in the new branch, but ever since she had arrived a week ago, she had not been able to get a wink of sleep. The only thing allowing her to power through the day was coffee, or tons of sugar to keep her awake and her energy high._

 _She staggered over to the fridge in her room, sitting down in front of it and searching for some milk to warm up and drink. She frowned as she lifted the empty milk carton, not realising that she had finished it in less than a week, thanks to her inability to sleep well. All of a sudden, her phone began to ring and she dragged her feet back to her bedside table to pick it up._

 _"Hello?" She spoke sleepily._

 _"Trash, where the hell are you?" Xanxus' voice boomed from the receiver._

 _"Look," she sighed, exasperated and completely drained. "I haven't slept well since arriving here! The last thing I need is another screaming match with you!"_

 _"If you don't come back, you won't even get to close your eyes."_

 _"What?" His words instantly piqued her suspicion and she raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"_

 _"Don't forget, I have an Arcobaleno as an officer. Little mind games like these are nothing to him."_

 _With that, Xanxus hung up the phone, leaving Iiya to put things together. But frankly, at that point, it wasn't difficult to piece together the truth._

* * *

"Viper has always been good at that," Reborn said. "Xanxus really made the most of that ability, didn't he?"

"Does he still do that?" Chrome asked out of concern.

"Sometimes," Iiya replied. "But I've gotten used to it by now, I guess."

"Can't we do anything about it?" Ryohei sighed. "Something needs to be done extremely fast!"

"Then," Hibari spoke coldly, still bitter that Dino had managed to talk him into attending the meeting. "Just shift her to a place where he can't find her."

Reborn thought for a moment, realising that what Hibari said made a lot of sense. Given their current situation, he was unsure exactly what Xanxus had in mind for Iiya. But no matter what it was, securing her safety was of utmost importance. She had barely escaped death this time round and there was no telling if she would be so lucky the next time. Reborn nodded to Tsuna and nudged him, telling him that he would be placed in charge of this.

"ME?" Tsuna panicked, pointing to himself. "YOU'RE ASKING ME?"

"You're the boss, Tsuna," Reborn said. "You decide what to do and we'll all follow you."

Tsuna bit his lip, wondering what would be the best course of action to take. Staying in Italy was not safe at all and going to another DS55 branch didn't seem like a plausible option. Suddenly, a thought struck Tsuna.

"Let's bring her to Nanimori."

Reborn smiled, knowing exactly what Tsuna was thinking.

"We're supposed to go back to Nanimori next week anyway, so let's push the trip forward. I don't feel like Iiya-san will be safe here. Does everyone agree with me?"

Everyone in the room nodded at Tsuna, signalling their agreement to go to Nanimori.

"Chrome, can you intercept Mammon's Thoughtography? Make sure that she can't find Iiya-san… It'll buy us some time to get ready and figure out what he wants."

"Yes, Boss!" Chrome smiled.

"Reborn, remind me to contact Dad and make sure he covers for all of us in Italy as much as he can. We need to make it look like we left as planned, so as to prevent Xanxus from getting suspicious."

"Okay, I'll contact Iemitsu right away," Reborn nodded.

"If possible, I'd like to leave in the middle of the night. That's the best time for us to leave, I think."

"Why not in the morning, Sawada?" Ryohei asked. "Leaving at night makes us look sneaky to the extreme…"

"Good point, Senpai!" Yamamoto exclaimed. "It'll give us time to prepare and clean up here too."

"Okay then, we'll leave at dawn tomorrow!" Tsuna said. "Which just leave us with one problem… Where is Iiya-san going to stay at?"

An awkward silence filled the air for a brief moment, before Gokudera cleared his throat.

"There's no question about it, Juudaime," He said firmly. "She's staying with me at my place, of course."

Another tense few seconds passed, as half of Tsuna's guardians stared at Gokudera in confusion.

"What do you mean by that, Octopus-head?" Ryohei shouted. "Your place isn't even inhabitable!"

"Shut up, Lawn-head!" Gokudera growled.

"If anything, she'd probably stay at Sawada's place! Why must it be yours?"

"BECAUSE!"

Gokudera found himself speechless for a moment, as Iiya slapped her forehead with her palm and shook her head. _"He's totally tripping up, isn't he?"_ She thought.

"BECAUSE!"

"Because what, Octopus-head?" Ryohei challenged him.

"BECAUSE BECAUSE!" Gokudera shouted, completely frustrated and embarrassed with how he was acting right now.

"Now, now, Senpai, it's alright!" Yamamoto laughed.

"Haha…" Tsuna laughed nervously. "But yeah, Iiya-san will stay with Gokudera-kun, since his place is more or less in the middle of all of ours."

"Juudaime…" Gokudera looked at Tsuna, clearly thankful for him.

"It's settled then, we leave at dawn." Tsuna nodded.

* * *

Iiya packed up the last of her things, making sure to leave things she didn't need behind. She had passed her suitcase to her subordinates at DS55 for delivery to Nanimori, in order to make it look as if she had gone on a business trip, to prevent her departure from arousing any suspicion. Tsuna and his guardians had done the same, except that their items were much less than hers and had been left to the Vongola for transportation to Japan. She sighed as she picked up the picture of her parents from her desk drawer, looking fondly at their faces before putting it down. Gokudera walked into her office, noticing the hint of sadness in her eyes.

"You're still awake?" He asked, fishing a cigarette out from the box and lighting it up.

"So are you," she mumbled, walking over to him and snatching the cigarette out of his hands.

"Hey, give that back!" He reached out towards her and took back his cigarette, puffing it again.

"I've never been to Nanimori before," she beamed excitedly, still showing signs of exhaustion but keeping her smile up nevertheless. "I can't wait to go there and see how life is like over there."

Gokudera forced a smile on his face, as the thought of his small apartment made him cringe. He had not tidied the place up very well prior to the inheritance ceremony. In addition, there weren't many things in his apartment and he had kept it looking rather bare, only furnishing it with the basic necessities required. _"I don't even have a proper bed… What a bad time to have her over…"_

"Hayato?" She looked up at him. "I'm gonna sleep now. You should too."

"Oh! Okay. Goodnight then," he reached out to give her a hug.

"Goodnight."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

And with that, that's the history between Iiya and Xanxus. I had a few possibilities going on for their past, but decided to go with this one since the other options seemed even more far-fetched and potentially could throw them out of character. It's finally time to take the story back to Nanimori! I realised that I didn't make the location clear enough up till now, really sorry if it confused anyone :( I also cut down a little on the fluff since I felt that there was a bit too much in the previous chapter (got really carried away writing it LOL)

Thank you for reading this chapter! Please leave a review and tell me what you think :) I hope you enjoyed it!


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12: THEIR ARRIVAL IN NANIMORI**

After several hours on the plane, Iiya, Reborn, Tsuna and his Guardians had finally arrived In Nanimori. It had already begun snowing in Nanimori, and with every exhale, a small white puff could be seen. Iiya's cheeks were slightly flushed from the cold as she descended from the plane, looking around at the frozen landscape. Everyone gathered and watched as the plane took off for its next location.

"Okay then, see you all tomorrow afternoon at my place!" Tsuna smiled, picking Lambo up in his arms and waving goodbye to everyone, with Reborn following after him.

"See you later!" Yamamoto waved back. "Senpai and I will bring Chrome over to Kokuyo Health Land first!"

Hibari glanced at everyone for a second, before leaving without a word.

"Let's go home and settle down," Gokudera said to Iiya.

* * *

Gokudera took out his house key and fiddled with the lock for a brief second, before finally getting his house door open. Iiya bowed before entering his apartment and removed her boots, leaving it beside his doorstep.

"Uh…"

Iiya was rendered speechless as she stepped into his apartment, surveying the area before her very eyes. His apartment was sparse, with very minimal furnishing. The bare nature of his house had nothing to do with the fact that it was a studio apartment. All he had in his house was the necessities, such as appliances, a sofa that doubled as a bed, a coffee table, a television, a shelf full of books and a wardrobe. Iiya was not expecting much from his house, but even so, she never predicted it to turn out the way it was. Gokudera clearly did not spend much time on housekeeping, as his sofa bed was still unmade and some of his clothes were still lying around the apartment, along with his books and magazines.

"What are you looking at?" He scoffed, taking her backpack from her hands and setting it down next to his wardrobe. "Is it that bad?"

"You sure don't spend a lot of time cleaning up, do you?" She muttered, walking over the fridge and opening the door, only to find it empty. "Where's the nearest supermarket, by the way?"

"Why do you need to know?" He asked, throwing himself onto his bed and giving a loud sigh, while watching her rummage through his kitchen drawers for pots and utensils.

"Uh, because we need to eat dinner?"

"We can just get take out or something," he lit up his first cigarette since getting home. "You're tired anyway, it was a really long flight."

"No, we aren't!" Iiya insisted. "That's not good for your health and you're already smoking so much! I don't need you screwing up your diet too! And we still have to train while in you're all in Japan, so I need to make sure that at least you're eating alright!"

"Says the one who likes breathing in smoke…" He grumbled.

"Just tell me where it is." She sighed. "I do this all the time when I go overseas on missions, so I'm used to it. You can stay here if you're tired, I'll just go alone."

Gokudera sighed, hopping off the bed and snatching up his keys.

"Fine, let's go."

* * *

Iiya stared at the groceries she had bought, deciding what she should make. She had definitely ended up buying a bit more than she had expected herself to, but at the very least, she had managed to stock up his empty fridge with food. Tying her hair up into a high ponytail and clipping her fringe up, she decided to make spaghetti, since she knew it well enough to make it quickly in time for dinner. She quickly prepared the ingredients for the sauce and let it simmer, before boiling the spaghetti noodle in another pot. While waiting, she started on the meatballs, checking on everything quickly to make sure all was cooking nicely. She looked at Gokudera, who was fully focused on reading the papers he had brought over from Vongola's headquarters in Italy.

"Hayato, open your mouth."

"Huh wha-" Gokudera was taken by surprise as she fed him a spoon of the spaghetti sauce she had just made.

"How is it..?" She asked. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah…"

"Ok, open your mouth again."

"What else do you want me to tr-"

Before he got to finish his sentence, Iiya gave him a very quick, yet deep kiss on the lips, making him blush instantly.

"I'll be done in thirty minutes, okay?" She smiled.

* * *

After dinner, Iiya washed the plates and Gokudera took a bath first. She glanced at the clock, wondering what time her subordinates would deliver her luggage to the apartment. Suddenly, her phone rang and she rushed over to pick it up, after putting away the last of the dishes that required washing. She bit her lip nervously as she listened to the call, running over to her backpack and rummaging through it. Slapping her forehead, she wondered how she was about to deal with this situation, as Gokudera came out from the bathroom, fresh from his shower.

"What's wrong?" He asked, as he used his towel to dry his wet, silver hair.

"Well," She stammered, a little hesitant in explaining her situation. "Apparently they can't deliver my luggage today. Something happened mid-way, so there'll be a delay. It's only coming tomorrow morning."

"And..?" Gokudera raised his eyebrows, wanting to hear the end of her story, sensing that she had not truly explained her issue.

"I packed all my toiletries, my towel, my underwear and my shorts in my backpack, but I can't find my spare shirt."

He stopped in his tracks upon hearing that, immediately understanding why she felt awkward about her situation.

"So…" She took a deep breath in. "Unless you want me walking around your apartment without…"

"Shut up!" He retorted, knowing exactly what she meant even before she said it.

He walked over to his closet, his cheeks flushing slightly, reaching inside to grab one of his pullovers and threw it over to her.

"You like wearing clothes like these to sleep right?"

"Yeah. Thanks, I'll go shower now."

* * *

Iiya stepped out of the bathroom after her shower, feeling slightly self-conscious as it got later into the night. Gokudera was still fully focused on his paperwork and his smoking, even as she placed her towel on the clothes rack to dry. Grabbing her laptop from her bag, she plopped herself onto the bed and switched it on, checking her emails and DS55's database, to monitor the progress of the missions her subordinates were tackling right now.

"Oi."

Iiya looked up, only to see that Gokudera was still staring at his paperwork, not even attempting to make eye contact with her.

"Is the shirt okay?"

"Yeah," she tried to sound cheerful. "I like it."

 _"_ _Maybe he just has a lot to do,"_ she thought. She turned her focus back to her work, replying her emails and handing down instructions to her subordinates. Noting how late it was, she suddenly remembered to send a quick email to her colleague in the Japanese headquarters of DS55, regarding the Vongola's arrival and the usage of the training space. Her ears picked up the sound of papers being placed on the coffee table and another cigarette being lit up, as well as the movement of the fabric on the sofa, telling her that he had left his seat. Finishing up her email, she tried to ignore the awkward tension in the air as she sighed, switching off her laptop and putting it down on the table. She turned her head to look at his back view, as he stood in front of the sliding doors leading to the balcony. The moonlight shone gently on his face as he took another puff, his free hand shoved into the pocket of his long pants. His hair was still tied up and his glasses were still on. Somehow, things had gotten progressively awkward ever since she stepped in, even more so after she had to borrow his shirt. After pondering for a moment, she slowly got off the bed, putting her feet on the cold floor. The low temperatures made her wish she had her socks with her now. She snatched the cigarette out of his hand and held it away from him.

"Oi, I wasn't done with that yet!" He shouted, reaching out to snatch it back, but retracting his hands once he noticed the hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Are you angry?"

"At what?"

"I don't know… Me?" She asked. "You haven't exactly been looking me in the eye since we got here."

"Well…" He paused for a moment before continuing to speak. "I just don't really know what to do."

"Huh?" Iiya raised an eyebrow, slowly bringing the cigarette closer to her mouth.

"As in," he quickly grabbed his cigarette back, puffing it again before looking away. "I was worried you'd think differently after seeing how I live outside of the headquarters."

"I'm fine with it. Actually, I kind of expected you to be like this, but like I said before," she gave him a gentle hug. "I like you being like this."

"And I don't know what to do when it's just the two of us here," he looked at his cigarette nervously.

Iiya laughed and tightened her grasp around him.

"It's just me, there's no need to feel nervous around me, Hayato."

* * *

Iiya stayed under the blanket as Gokudera went to turn off the lights, before sliding into the spot beside her.

"Goodnight, Iiya."

"Goodnight."

Iiya closed her eyes and tried her best to fall asleep, feeling the distance between her and Gokudera on the bed. She turned to face her back to him, trying to ignore the awkward space between them. Suddenly, she felt him grab her arm and pull her close to his body, causing her to turn around to look at him.

"I should let you try my other clothes too, hm?" He whispered sleepily, before giving her a light kiss on the forehead. "You look so good in them that I don't know what to do."

Iiya smiled, wondering if he was verbalising his thoughts by accident due to fatigue, or if he really intended for her to hear it. Regardless, it made her happy, as she snuggled up against his warmth, and he continued to hold her close and give her bits of his love till they both fell asleep.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I've been so hyped to take the story back to Nanimori, because that's when I can finally introduce more characters to this storyline! I have a few people in mind, but you'll definitely be seeing Kyoko, Haru, i-Pin and Iemitsu :D I do want to bring in Mukuro, but I'll need to give it a bit more thought on how to actually put him in...

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story so far :) Do leave a review to tell me what you think! Thank you for reading and I hope to be able to update ASAP :)


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13: UNCOVERED FEELINGS, TRUE INTENTIONS**

"Ah? Is this a new friend I've never met before, Tsu-kun?"

A lady with short brown hair smiled gently at Iiya as she opened the door to welcome them in. Tsuna ran over to his mother and nodded.

"Yup! Mum, this is Iiya-san," he introduced her to his mother. "She's um… a year below me! Iiya-san, this is my mother."

"Hello!" Iiya bowed to her, as a sign of respect and ensuring that she kept to the customs in Japan.

"Everyone else is inside, so come right in!" Nana chuckled.

* * *

Almost all of the guardians had assembled in Tsuna's house, with the exception of Hibari, as expected. In addition, there were three other girls, and Iiya instantly knew who they were, remembering pictures of them from Tsuna's folder in her database. Tsuna introduced her to Kyoko, Haru and I-pin, drawing a slight smirk from Iiya.

"So, this is THE Kyoko that I'm finally getting to meet, huh?" She whispered into Tsuna's ear, throwing Tsuna into an instant state of panic.

"IIYA-SAN!" He shrieked, flailing his arms.

"Have you finally confessed your feelings?"

"DON'T SAY STUFF LIKE THAT!"

Lambo ran to Iiya immediately once he had spotted her, trying to climb up her leg until Iiya finally picked him up in her arms. Gokudera went over to join Yamamoto and Ryohei, getting slightly agitated as he got into another one of his casual spats with Ryohei, leaving Yamamoto to calm the both of them down as per usual. Chrome was seated with the other girls, smiling at them as Haru talked about her new cosplay costumes excitedly. Iiya eventually got pulled over to sit with the girls, as they got into a lively conversation with her, trying to find out more about the new girl Tsuna had introduced.

"Do you like Tsuna-san?" Haru questioned her, trying to establish if she would be her rival in love.

"Just as a friend, Haru-chan!" She smiled.

"Don't worry, Haru," Bianchi laughed. "This girl only has eyes for someone else…"

"Wah! Who is it, Iiya-chan?" Kyoko asked, grabbing her hand excitedly.

"Well…"

"Iiya-chan, is that you?"

Iiya turned around and spotted a man with tanned skin and blonde hair, who appeared to have just woken up from his nap. She raised an eyebrow and peered at him closely, before breaking out into a huge smile and approaching him, giving him a hug.

"Uncle Iemitsu, it's been so long!"

"U-U-UNCLE?" Tsuna screamed. "WHY IS SHE CALLING YOU UNCLE?"

"OH, SAWADA, COULD SHE BE YOUR COUSIN OR DISTANT RELATIVE?" Ryohei shouted, contributing to the ruckus.

"Wait, is that true, Tsuna?" Yamamoto chimed in.

"JUUDAIME?" Gokudera was freaking out from Ryohei's deduction (which surprisingly, made some sense).

"Haha, calm down everyone!" Nana laughed, as she brought out more food for everyone. "Let your father speak, Tsu-kun!"

"I've known Iiya-chan's parents for quite a long time," Iemitsu explained. "And after her parents died, I made sure to drop by to check on her. I also had to approve of her, uh, joining that school."

Everyone looked at each other, knowing fully that the school Iemitsu was referring to was the school for children about to join the mafia. Iiya grinned sheepishly, feeling a bit guilty for not telling Tsuna about this beforehand.

* * *

Iemitsu gathered Iiya, Tsuna and his guardians in Tsuna's room, closing the door tightly to make sure Nana would not overhear the conversation. Reborn had popped into the room, followed by Hibari, who had somehow managed to sneak into Tsuna's backyard and make his way up to his room, sitting on the window ledge and giving out a yawn. Reborn nodded at Iemitsu, who began the meeting with a serious tone in his voice.

"After much investigation, we've managed to come up with two possibilities that could serve as Xanxus' motive for going after Iiya-chan."

Iiya gulped, having thought of a few possibilities on her own, curious if hers and Iemitsu's conclusions were similar in any way.

"The first deduction we made is that Xanxus wants to absorb DS55," Iemitsu nodded. "With the current combat power and intelligence of your organisation, combined with the Varia, Xanxus would have enough power to stage another coup, this time directly against the current Vongola Decimo. Given the intelligence he would have in his hands, should this happen, he could succeed with careful planning."

"So how would this involve me?" Iiya asked.

"By being joined with you in matrimony, a partnership where the DS55 would be under the Varia's control wouldn't seem all that suspicious. Especially given the fact that you've been refusing any form of partnership or connection with the Varia."

"But Iiya asked Squalo to help with tutoring me, and Mammon to help Chrome out…" Yamamoto spoke up. "And they're in the Varia!"

Iemitsu shot Iiya a stern look, before sighing.

"Putting the growth of your students over your own personal interest and safety?" He asked.

"Yeah," Iiya nodded. "I've always been on good working terms with Squalo, and it's easy to buy Mammon out if you give him cash, so I didn't feel a need to be too worried about them."

"Even though Mammon had a part to play in your previous assault?"

Iiya kept quiet for a moment, before slowly nodding her head.

"I think it'll be good for you to keep your distance from any Varia members for now, Iiya-chan," Iemitsu advised her.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Ever since the first week of training ended, I haven't been in contact with any of them. Well, that is, until they attacked me. It was an oversight on my part, I guess. What about the second possibility?"

"Well, the second deduction seems a bit ridiculous, but it would make sense if we bring in evidence from the past…" Iemitsu muttered, wondering how to put it into words.

"What is it already?" Gokudera demanded.

"Remember how you mysteriously received a rose on your doorstep on Valentine's Day, when you were thirteen? And how you kept receiving that same rose on every Valentine's Day and birthday from then on?"

"Yeah," Iiya shrugged. "But it was probably from one of the guys in mafia school right?"

"One of the… Guys?" Gokudera mumbled.

Yamamoto could not help but laugh once he saw Gokudera's shocked expression, causing Tsuna to try to hush him down before Gokudera got angry.

"It was from Xanxus." Iemitsu revealed.

His revelation caused almost everyone to spit out the tea they were drinking, with the exception of Reborn, Hibari and Chrome. Iiya's face turned into a deep shade of crimson, as she put her forehead on the table, hiding her face while she tried to recover from the shock she had just gotten.

"Eww." That was all she could muster up and say.

After a few minutes of shock and tension in the atmosphere, Gokudera decided to break the silence and speak up.

"Well, regardless of what his motives are, it doesn't change the fact that we need to protect her, right?" He asked, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

Yamamoto glanced at his friend, sensing the determination in his voice.

"The instincts are finally coming out, huh?" He laughed.

"Huh, what instincts are you talking about?" Gokudera retorted. "Baseball nut!"

Before Yamamoto could say anymore, Tsuna threw his palm over his mouth, keeping Yamamoto silent and giving an awkward laugh.

"It was supposed to be a secret!" Tsuna whispered, unaware that everyone's attention had been drawn to him.

"Sorry," Yamamoto scratched his head and chuckled. "It just slipped out!"

"Tsuna," Iemitsu spoke sternly. "What are you hiding from me?"

"Uh…" Tsuna cringed under the deathly glare from his father.

Gokudera, realising that he was troubling his boss right now, decided that he had to tell the truth.

"It's okay, Juudaime," Gokudera sighed. "I'll just say it. We're…"

Iemitsu narrowed his eyes as Gokudera struggled to get the words out. Iiya raised her eyebrows, not completely sure of what he intended to say, choosing to keep quiet and wait for him.

"We're… WE'RE TOGETHER!" Gokudera shouted, grabbing Iiya's hand and raising it up for everyone to see. "THERE, I SAID IT!"

"FOR REAL, OCTOPUS-HEAD?" Ryohei stood up from his seat, clearly in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's real," Bianchi walked into the room, carrying a new pot of tea. "At least you didn't have to see what I saw this morning."

* * *

 _Bianchi took the suitcase from the courier and brought it up to her brother's doorstep. She had wanted to check on him to make sure he and Iiya had settled down well, as well as cook for him, fully aware that he would not go to the trouble of making breakfast for himself if he felt that he did not need it. Coincidentally, Iiya's suitcase had finally arrived, so she could deliver it and cook breakfast for them both. Fishing out the spare key that she had secretly made, Bianchi quietly opened the door to her brother's apartment, not too surprised by the mess of clothes lying around on the floor. She left Iiya's suitcase next to the closet, about to begin picking up the clothes off the floor when she noticed something from the corner of her eye._

 _Iiya was dressed in her brother's favourite red pullover, still fast asleep and unmoving. What shocked Bianchi the most was the sight of her brother, who was usually cold to others, holding her in his arms extremely tightly, his arm around her neck and his hand on her head, as if he had fallen asleep while stroking her hair. He looked so relaxed and peaceful, his lips gently brushing against her forehead._

 _"Hayato?" Bianchi shook him gently, trying to rouse him from his sleep._

* * *

"SIS!" Gokudera screamed. "S-S-SHUT UP!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

This chapter was a bit of a rush for me, since I really wanted to finish it up before heading off to the preview of the performance I'm participating in today :( I still haven't thought about how I'm going to integrate Mukuro into the story, hopefully I come up with something fast!

Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you're enjoying the story so far :) Do leave a review to tell me what you think! Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more :)


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14: BREAKING WALLS**

Tsuna smiled as he waved goodbye to his friends, who were finally going home after a long meeting with Iemitsu. His smile vanished once everyone had left and he furrowed his brows, as he thought back on what had happened earlier in the meeting.

* * *

 _Iiya had left the room as instructed by Iemitsu, who told her that Lal Mirch was arriving with the package she had requested and asked her to go downstairs to pick it up. Once Iiya closed the door behind her, Iemitsu turned to face his son and his guardians, with a severe look on his face._

 _"Besides informing you about Xanxus' possible motives, I also have a request from both myself, as the head of the CEDEF, as well as the Ninth." Iemitsu said, fishing out a letter with the Ninth's Dying Will Flame on it and passing it to Tsuna._

 _Tsuna stared at his father in bewilderment, while taking the letter from his hands and carefully reading it. His eyes widened and he took a deep breath, piquing his guardians' interest and Lambo instantly snatched it out of Tsuna's hands._

 _"Huh? Why do we have to protect Iiya?" Lambo tilted his head to the side, clearly having no understanding of the situation at hand._

 _"You know of Iiya's tendencies to put others before herself, don't you?" Iemitsu asked them._

 _"More or less…" Ryohei muttered._

 _"She's very mature for her age because of the things that she has been put through since young. She always tries to put up a strong front. That's why she can gain the trust of her peers and her elders. But the Ninth and I both feel that her inability to value her welfare is going to be her downfall, if she isn't careful."_

 _"But Dad… Iiya-san isn't the type to throw away her own well-being… Or her own life, isn't she?" Tsuna asked._

 _"She wouldn't throw it away… Unless people get involved with her problems and she feels that things would be better if she made a sacrifice on her part."  
_

 _"And then again, how much about do you really know about Iiya?" Reborn spoke up. "How much about her past do you really know?"_

 _Yamamoto gulped nervously and his eyes grew dark, sensing that there was something wrong._

 _"Because of this selflessness, there are also many things she would hide from you," Reborn sighed. "If she feels that revealing the truth would implicate you guys and endanger you, she would hide it. If she feels that telling you the truth would affect your relationship with her and make you lose your respect towards her, she wouldn't tell you. And even if you press her, she wouldn't confide in you."_

 _"But she told us what Xanxus did to her!" Gokudera shouted, banging the table angrily. "She told me the whole story! And then she told everyone!"_

 _"How do you know that's the whole truth, then?" Dino appeared out of nowhere, jumping through the window where Hibari was seated on and sitting beside him, much to Hibari's annoyance._

 _"Iiya never really talked about herself to any of you, unless she felt that it would be relevant to your training, right?" Reborn asked. "Has she told you anything about herself that you didn't know about?"_

 _"She showed me her Mist flame before," Gokudera mumbled._

 _"Using which ring?" Dino questioned him._

 _"Her Varia ring."_

 _"Hmph," Dino smirked. "She hid her real ring from you, then."_

* * *

 _"Dad and the Ninth told us to protect her. But after all that has been said today, I feel like I don't know how Iiya-san feels anymore,"_ Tsuna pondered to himself.

He thought about how his father had told him to think about the look in Iiya's eyes. Tsuna lay on his bed, trying to recall how it was when they first met. That day, at the party, he sensed her genuine willingness to befriend him. When they were training, he felt her determination to make him stronger and her happiness when he made progress. But lately, ever since Xanxus attacked her, he could see a slight hint of uneasiness in her eyes, almost as if she knew something was about to happen.

 _"Dad also said… To do our best to get her to really open up her heart to us."_

* * *

 _"Open up her heart, huh?"_ Gokudera found that vaguely familiar, recalling how Tsuna was the one who took away his loneliness when he first got to Japan.

He lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling as Iiya went to take her bath, thinking about the other line that Iemitsu had said to him, and to him only. He scratched his head, wondering what meanings could be hidden within it, given that it was a very simple yet vague request. He was about to light up a cigarette when Iiya came out and hurried him to take his bath. He grumbled, looking annoyed on the surface, but still deep in thought on the inside. As the water streamed down his hair and his body, he took a deep sigh, not exactly sure how to go about with Iemitsu's request. There were many ways to go about it, but he didn't know which was the best method.

He walked out of the bathroom to see Iiya lying on the bed with Uri rested on her chest. Shrugging his shoulders, he wondered how she could get Uri to warm up to her so quickly, while he was still having minor issues with the kitten. He waved his hand at Uri, motioning for her to get off, causing Uri to hiss at him before taking her leave. Getting onto the bed and lying on his stomach, he gingerly brushed her hair out of her face, looking at her sleeping face.

"I hope that I can give you happiness, Iiya."

* * *

Iiya dragged the package she had gotten from Lal behind her, with Tsuna and his guardians following behind, having no clue about where they were headed. She stopped in the middle of a deserted alleyway, turning to the wall on her right and touching it with her right palm, revealing a secret panel hidden under the cement. The panel scanned Iiya's entire face, causing cracks to form on the wall and uncover a secret door.

"Follow me!"

She walked down the hallway, surveying the surroundings and glancing at the infrastructure, given that she had never personally visited the Japanese headquarters of DS55 before. The greyish hues of the cement progressively became pink, causing Iiya to sigh in frustration as she knew that it had something to do with the person she had placed in charge of this facility. Eventually, they reached the end of the cemented walkway and Iiya pushed the button next to the door with her entire palm.

"If any of you want to come in here to use the facilities, you need to inform me beforehand. All of our doors are fitted with fingerprint scanners and facial recognition devices to prevent intruders from infiltrating our headquarters," she explained.

The doors opened and Iiya led Tsuna and his guardians into the high-tech facility. There were numerous computers stationed all over the massive area, with people handling a few computers at a time. The sound of fingers flying across keyboards and the alert tones from updates rang softly throughout the room. There was a staircase leading up to a second floor, lined with glass panels. Behind the glass panels were a few researchers, developing new instruments that could be used in combat, as well as maintaining different types of weapons, probably used by the combatants in DS55.

"Welcome to the Japanese headquarters of DS55, everyone!" Iiya gave a slight smile. "Reborn and Dino are already in here, one of my officers brought them in earlier."

"Officers?" Chrome asked.

"Yeah," Iiya said. "They're something like guardians within the DS55, but I didn't register their positions within the Vongola database. I kept the identities of my six officers confidential, so that Xanxus couldn't make them targets. Only those in the DS55 know who they are, and I trust that they wouldn't leak out their comrades' information to the Varia."

Just at this moment, Dino and Reborn were seen walking towards them, led by an unfamiliar young man. He was rather tall, sporting short blonde hair with light blue highlights. He wore a long-sleeved sky blue shirt, covered by a black short-sleeved jacket on top. Also, he had on a pair of dark blue jeans and dark brown sneakers. Something about his facial features made it clear that this man was not purely Japanese, and probably was of Italian descent as well. His dark blue eyes lit up with happiness as he ran towards Iiya excitedly.

"IIYA-CHAN!"

Everyone raised their eyebrows as he approached her, watching this strange sight unfold before them, with Iiya sighing and pulling him by his hair.

"You sure don't act like an officer, even after all these years, huh?" She grumbled.

"O-o-officer?" Tsuna said in disbelief. "THIS GUY IS ONE OF YOUR OFFICERS?"

"Yeah! Hard to believe isn't it?" Iiya sighed.

"Stop embarrassing me, Iiya-chan!" The guy whined.

"Who started embarrassing himself first, HUH?" Iiya retorted, letting go of his hair at last.

The young man used his hands to tame his messy hair back into place, before finally looking a little serious for once.

"Hello, Vongola Decimo and his guardians." He bowed before them. "My name is Andy Fujiro, but everyone here calls me 'Rush'. I'm one of the six officers in DS55, bearing rain flames."

"We're starting a tougher training regimen for all of you and we'll be using the training room here for your trainings, starting from today onwards. Rush is going to be helping me with this, I made sure he left free slots in his non-existent work schedule."

"I'll always have free slots for you, Iiya-chan!" He chuckled, provoking Iiya into shooting him a sharp glare with her eyes.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to get my other officers to help, since they're stationed in different headquarters around the world. I always allocate one officer to one headquarter and ask them to take charge over there, so they're usually really busy," Iiya explained.

"Haha, still acting like one of the guys from mafia school, aren't you?" Dino laughed, patting Rush on the back.

"One of the… Guys?" Gokudera mumbled, causing Yamamoto to throw his arm around his friend and break out into laughter.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Finally got to introducing one of Iiya's officers! Hopefully I'll have time to introduce the others into the story, without overcomplicating the storyline. Next chapter, Rush will fight against one of the Guardians as part of the training and Gokudera will have a serious talk with Iiya. I'm quite excited to write the next chapter :)

Also, shoutout to Arthur Moebius, thank you for your review! :)

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! If you'd like to, do leave a review to tell me what you think :) Thank you for reading and do stay tuned :D


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15: QUESTION**

Iiya left Yamamoto in Rush's hands, bringing the rest of the guardians into another training room to split them up into their respective groups. She left Dino to deal with Hibari, knowing fully that Hibari had been looking forward to facing her again and that he had to wait till the next day to get his wish fulfilled. Reborn would be in charge of Lambo, Ryohei and Chrome, while she would be with Tsuna and Gokudera today. She sighed, still unsure if Lambo would be alright with Reborn, given that Lambo had been trying to 'defeat' Reborn for the longest time and had never succeeded. Despite that, she had faith that Reborn would be able to take care of him and train him properly, in his capacity as a tutor.

"Oi, why does Yamamoto get his own personal tutor?" Gokudera asked Iiya.

"Hmm, remember I wanted to work on enhancing Yamamoto's speed?" Iiya replied, still walking forward and placing her palm on the panel, leading them into the fourth training room.

"Yeah, I remember that," Tsuna nodded.

"Rush lives up to his name of being the fastest among my officers. Time to see if Yamamoto has improved enough!"

* * *

Rush led Yamamoto into a huge blue room, which was brightly lit. Yamamoto stepped into the room, hearing the splash of water as he nearly fell in, noticing that the area was filled with water, reaching up to his waist.

"Oops, sorry!" Rush apologised. "I forgot to tell you to watch your step!"

"Haha, it's alright!" Yamamoto laughed. "What kind of room is this, anyway?"

"This is the Rain training room," Rush explained. "It's probably obvious by now that it's filled with a serious lot of water. It was totally Iiya-chan's idea!"

"Interesting!" Yamamoto chuckled.

"She told me that she had been working on your speed, and Reborn informed me that you were the most athletic out of Vongola Decimo's entire family."

With his voice suddenly becoming serious, Yamamoto had a hunch that Rush was about to tell him the plan for his training this morning. Yamamoto glanced at the water around him, noticing how the water resistance he experienced was making his legs feel sluggish and slow.

"It's really simple. Just don't get knocked out by me before lunch."

Rush trained his eyes on Yamamoto as he reached both hands behind him, whipping out the twin daggers that were attached to his belt. Each blade was forty-five centimetres in length, attached to a dark blue hilt. Yamamoto instantly noticed how sharp the daggers were, as they gleamed under the lights, and the blade was relatively thin.

"It was coincidental, but it seems that the trademark of us officers and our boss is that we all use weapons which require the use of both hands," Rush added.

"Double wielding?" Yamamoto asked. "But isn't it difficult?"

"Yeah, it isn't easy to master," Rush admitted. "I took really long to understand how to use it. But since we're an organisation specialising in combat and intelligence, I wasn't about to let an impractical method hinder my skills in combat."

Once he finished his sentence, Rush immediately lunged towards Yamamoto, leading him to block it with Shigure Kintoki. Yamamoto could feel the force from his blade, struggling to keep the dagger away from him. However, he could feel something sharp going for his sides, and he bent his body away instinctively, barely missing the other dagger.

"Good reflexes." Rush nodded. "That was a move that could have determined your status in a battle."

 _"_ _Shigure Soen Ryu, Fifth Offensive Form."_

"Samidare (Early Summer Rain)!"

Yamamoto switched hands in between, concealing the switch within the depths of the water, before swinging Shigure Kintoki, nearly slicing Rush. Rush had jumped back in time, knowing that he could not possibly jump high enough to throw his dagger. After recovering from that attack, he rushed towards Yamamoto, striking him quickly with both daggers, forcing Yamamoto to defend every blow. He was able to keep up with the relentless attacks, but he could feel his strength wavering under the force of each blow. Coupled with the fact that he had no opportunity to go on the offensive, Yamamoto kept his focus on each attack, while waiting for the right moment to strike back.

* * *

"Ah, I wonder how Yamamoto is doing…" Tsuna sighed, as Gokudera helped carry him into to the meeting room within the headquarters.

Reborn stared at his student, all beaten up after Iiya's training in the morning.

"Sorry…" Iiya gave Reborn an embarrassed smile. "I think I went too hard on your student this morning…"

"It's alright," Reborn nodded. "This is Tsuna we're talking about. Feel free to overdo it on him anytime!"

"REBORN!" Tsuna whined.

"What happened, Boss?" Chrome asked.

"Well, today we were training in the room filled with mirrors…" Iiya explained. "Tsuna got distracted by the number of reflections around him and he got so confused that he left himself wide open…"

"Still, you didn't have to hit Juudaime so hard!" Gokudera shouted.

"You got distracted too. Your aim was quite off today, you know."

"It was?" Gokudera choked on his words, feeling defeated.

"Never really thought I'd ever say this… But if you do this poorly again, I'm gonna hide all of your cigarettes from you."

"WHAT?" Gokudera shouted.

"And you can sleep on the floor."

"Oi, it's my house!"

"Haha, everyone's here already?" Yamamoto laughed, entering the room with Rush, both of them looking quite dishevelled.

"This guy did good," Rush nodded. "He was able to keep up with me."

"Good job, Yamamoto!" Iiya smiled, before turning to Tsuna and Gokudera. "You two better work even harder after lunch!"

* * *

Iiya and Gokudera were walking home after a long day of training. The other guardians had headed home first, as Tsuna had to stay behind to speak with Iiya and Rush. Gokudera stayed behind under the pretence of speaking with Dino, secretly wanting to be there for both Tsuna and Iiya. Tsuna and Reborn went their separate ways from Iiya and Gokudera, heading to their respective homes. It was late at night and the streets were dimly lit, the only source of light being the moon and the few street lamps that had lined up along the path. Gokudera glanced at Iiya, who was clearly exhausted, while he thought about what Iemitsu had said.

 _"_ _Make her happy… So much easier said than done."_ He thought. _"Can't believe I even went so far as to ask Dino how to make a girl happy, seriously."_

"Oi."

Iiya stopped in her tracks, noticing that Gokudera had stopped walking. She turned to look at him, the dim lighting revealing his eyes averting his gaze.

"Are you happy?"

"Huh?" His question had caught her completely off guard.

"As in… Are you happy being with someone like me?" Gokudera asked, getting slightly flustered.

Iiya raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was asking her such a thing out of the blue.

"Never mind."

Gokudera turned his head away and continued walking forward. She followed him, seemingly in a daze. Yet, she gave serious thought to his question, contributing to the awkwardness between them as they continued to walk home.

"I'd ask you the same thing too." Iiya muttered, finally deciding to speak up, as they neared their house.

"HUH?" Gokudera shouted.

"I know you're not the most vocal about your feelings, and most of the time I can get a sense of how you're feeling…" She explained. "But at the same time, I'm just guessing if that's the way you feel about me at that moment. And we both know that people with our intellect don't like it when there isn't confirmation about our deductions."

Iiya was about to continue walking when she felt someone sweep her off her feet. Her world looked upside down and she felt Gokudera's shoulder on her stomach, and his hand on her lower back. Her feet were dangling in mid-air and she turned her head, only to be greeted by his back.

"Hayato, put me down!" She slapped him behind, trying to get him to let her down.

"SHUT UP!" He ordered her, as he continued to walk home, carrying her over his shoulder and picking up the pace till they got to his doorstep.

* * *

Once he unlocked the door to his apartment, he threw Iiya down onto the bed and got on top of her, not letting her move. The only thing she could see was his face, his eyes looking right into hers.

"I'm not going to repeat myself, so listen, okay?" His voice softened all of a sudden.

Iiya could feel herself blushing already, as his fingers combed through her long orange hair.

"I'm really happy being with you," he said.

"I'm happy being with you too…" Iiya found the corners of her lips curling upwards instinctively. "No one else could make me happier than you."

"I want to know more about you," he admitted, as he stroked her cheek with his hand. "And I wish you would rely on me more."

"Well…" Iiya bit her lip nervously. "I just didn't really have the time to do that… We're always so busy and I don't want to trouble you unnecessarily…"

"We're together now." He said firmly, bringing his face closer to hers. "I'm going to learn about you whether you like it or not! And regardless of what I learn, or what trouble you put me through, nothing will change!"

Iiya reached out her hand to touch his face.

"Thank you. The same goes for me, too."

"Let's get to know each other better," he smiled.

"Let's spend more time together," she smiled back at him.

He used his fingers to wipe away her tears, before gently kissing her cheek.

"Okay then."

"Just not tonight!" She smirked, before kicking him off. "I have a lot of work to do and tomorrow's training is going to be really exhausting for me, so this can wait for another day."

Iiya hopped to the bathroom to take her shower, leaving Gokudera slightly taken aback. He sat up, scratching his head in confusion before breaking out into a smile.

"Damn."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

It's so difficult to not overdo the fluff because fluff scenes are the most natural thing to write for me T.T Things will definitely get interesting, since Iiya will reveal what's inside the package Lal Mirch gave her in the previous chapter! :)

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) If you'd like, do leave a review to tell me what you think! Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned :)


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16: A FRAGMENT OF THE PAST**

"So, today's the day…" Iiya mumbled to herself.

Iiya had arrived at the DS55 headquarters before Tsuna and his Guardians, in order to do her routine check with her subordinates. She had left the house bright and early, leaving a note for Gokudera on his table, along with his breakfast. With an hour before their arrival, she went into one of the training rooms on her own and did her own physical training, before taking a brief shower to freshen up. Lacing up her brown boots, she sighed, thinking about how today's training could possibly go. _"Hopefully it won't shock them too much… I've never actually had to use this for training before. But I guess it's all for the sake of their growth and the Vongola's strength, so it can't be helped!"_ She thought to herself, grabbing the package Lal had given her and heading to the pantry to get coffee, bumping into Rush on the way.

"Iiya-chan! Here's your coffee!" He handed her a cup of coffee.

"Oh, thanks." She took a sip, before smiling. "You still remember what I like to drink?"

"Yeah, of course!" He laughed. "You may have changed since our days in school, but your taste in food hasn't."

"Haha, thanks for remembering," she chuckled. "Let's go meet Tsuna and the rest."

* * *

Iiya and Rush walked into the main training room, where Tsuna and his guardians had assembled. Dino had also arrived with Reborn sitting comfortably on his shoulder, followed by Romario. Reborn looked at Iiya and the package she held in her hands, wondering what it was. She had not told him what was inside, but since it was here with her, she probably intended to use it for training.

"So, today we're playing a game!" Rush announced.

"Huh?" Gokudera scoffed. "We don't have time for games!"

"It's not really a game!" Dino exclaimed. "We're doing our own version of a tag team battle today! It's something we used to do in mafia school."

"Tag team… Battle?" Tsuna asked, clearly confused by what they were saying.

"So all of us in this room, with the exception of Romario, will be split into two teams. The first team picks out a person from their own team to fight, and the second team will send out one of their own members to challenge them to a match. Each match has a ten minute limit and is won when one opponent is unable to continue fighting." Iiya explained. "The team who wins the most matches will be the victor."

"That's why Romario is around, to make sure I can do my best!" Dino laughed.

"So, who's in which team?" Ryohei asked, evidently pumped up for the event.

"The first team is Tsuna and all of his guardians," Iiya said. "And the second team will be made up of me, Rush, Dino and Reborn."

"Wait, then isn't the number of players on each side uneven?" Yamamoto asked.

"That's why we have this!"

Iiya put down the package she was carrying, tearing away at the brown paper wrapping. She lifted up the lid of the box, revealing several blue and pink balls.

"They're bullets for the Ten-Year-Bazooka, right?" Gokudera questioned her.

"Yeah, sort of." Iiya nodded. "I ordered these from Irie-san."

"Irie-san?" Tsuna gasped. "Are you talking about Irie Shoichi?"

"Yup! He had these altered and tested to make sure it we could use it today. The pink balls are just like the Ten-Year-Bazooka, just that it'll allow us to exchange places with our future selves for ten minutes. The blue balls will allow us to exchange places with our counterparts from three years ago, just for ten minutes."

 _"Three years ago… That was when she just got engaged to Xanxus, isn't it?"_ Gokudera thought to himself. _"Usually one would prefer to exchange places with an older version of himself… There must be something about her younger self that she feels is important to our growth."_

"Oh and defeating the boss once will give you an extra point!" Rush added. "The bosses for each side will be Tsuna-san and Iiya-chan."

"Pick your first fighter, Tsuna," Iiya smiled.

Hibari stepped forward, ignoring everyone else on his team and drawing his tonfas.

"I'm going first."

"O-o-okay…" Tsuna nodded, having no choice but to agree.

"Hibari!" Ryohei shouted, forcefully pulling him into the circle they had formed. "You can't go before the circle!"

Rolling his eyes, Hibari was pulled along by Ryohei, unwillingly joining the crowd he disliked.

"HIBARI, FIGHT!"

Once they shouted, Hibari instantly shook them off, walking to the centre of the training room.

"Means I'm up first," Iiya sighed, grabbing the blue ball and walking towards Hibari. "Start the timer once my counterpart switches places with me, Rush."

"Yes, boss!" Rush nodded, looking serious.

Iiya put down an instruction sheet that she had signed in front of her, in order to instruct her former self to go along with the training. Biting her lip and taking a deep breath, she held the ball above her head.

"Here I go, then." She gave a loud sigh. "Don't be too shocked by what you're about to see, guys."

* * *

Hibari gripped his tonfas as Iiya dropped the ball on herself, engulfed in a puff of blue smoke. He had been eagerly waiting for fight her at her maximum, yet she had been denying his request and putting it off constantly. He genuinely wondered what kind of fight he would get with a younger version of Iiya, but regardless, he was expecting a lot from the ex-Varia member. As the blue smoke cleared, everyone's eyes widened. In front of Hibari stood a girl who looked a lot like Iiya, except that she had blonde hair, with its length stopping right above her shoulders. She had tied the Varia jacket around her waist and wore a white, short-sleeved shirt, a black skirt and knee-length boots. Picking up the instructions in front of her, her eyes quickly scanned through the words and she put her hand out, signalling Rush to come forward and get it.

"My future self better not be wasting my time…" She muttered, reaching behind her back and drawing her crosscuts immediately.

"Go for it, Iiya-chan!" Rush cooed. "And I hope you're wearing safety shorts today!"

"Of course I am!" She shouted, as she ran towards Hibari at top speed, swinging her crosscuts relentlessly.

The atmosphere got tense as both of them were quite evenly matched, being able to keep up with each other's attacks and defences. Iiya attempted to kick his legs out from underneath, but having learnt from his previous lessons, Hibari jumped up, causing her to miss. He knocked her backwards with a swipe from his tonfa, sending her flying across the room. However, to his surprise, he did not manage to land a single scratch on her, leading him to deduce that she had seen through his movements and jumped back in time.

"Wow." He smirked. "No wonder I felt something."

"Huh?" Tsuna looked at Gokudera. "What happened?"

"Iiya kicked his tonfa before Hibari hit her." He explained. "She used his weapon as a platform to propel herself away from him and create distance between them."

"Scary…" Yamamoto shuddered.

Iiya threw her right crosscut, seemingly aiming for Hibari's rib. Hibari dodged her weapon neatly, causing her crosscut to be lodged in the wall behind him.

"Hmm? Your aim is off." Hibari commented.

"Nope, it's just right," Iiya smiled, her eyes becoming sinister.

All of a sudden, Gokudera noticed a purple glow coming from under Iiya's jacket. He froze in shock as she reached under and held out a chain, connected to a peculiar looking ring. The ring had a horn attached to it, and it was glowing, lighted by purple flames. She pulled the ring off its chain, wearing it on her second finger, aiming the horn at Hibari's arms.

"Are you in pain?" She asked.

Hibari's knees were trembling at this point, as he struggled to hold on to his tonfas. The tonfas fell to the floor with a loud clunk. Iiya looked at the timer and nodded.

"Thirty seconds is more than enough to end this." She spoke, as both of her crosscuts lit up with sky flames.

With precise timing, she swung her left crosscut at Hibari and muttered the command.

"Trovare L'altro (Find each other)."

Her right crosscut dislodged itself from the wall, flying towards the other crosscut at an astonishing speed, as if they really were seeking to join with the other. With Hibari caught between both weapons, flying towards him while he was unable to defend himself, he was inevitably hit by the crosscuts. The impact caused him to crumble to the floor, unable to move as a puff of blue smoke appeared. Tsuna and his guardians were all left speechless, seeing Hibari defeated and unconscious. The present Iiya appeared as the timer rang out, and she ran towards Hibari.

"Don't worry, I told my past self not to kill you or fracture your ribs. You'll just be bruised and sore, at the very most." She whispered.

"Iiya-san."

Iiya turned around to see Tsuna, completely shaken by what he had seen.

"That ring… Was it..?"

Iiya sighed and shook her head.

"I didn't think she'd use it…" Iiya muttered. "Hibari must've been more difficult to handle than expected."

"What was that?" Gokudera demanded.

"It was a Hell Ring."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I've actually been thinking a lot about this story and I can't say I've decided how many chapters more I have left :( I'm trying to make sure it doesn't get too lengthy, so I may have to start picking from the current pool of ideas I have and choose the best combination I can get that leads up to the ending I planned :)

Next chapter, there'll be a pair battle with Tsuna and Gokudera against the other team! It'll be quite focused on action, and maybe the chapter after that will have the same feel since I feel that I haven't let all of the characters fight yet...

Also, a big thank you to Arthur Moebius for your kind review :)

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! I've been enjoying the writing process a lot haha :) If there's any feedback you'd like to give, feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think :) Thank you so much and stay tuned!


	17. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER 17: FORESIGHT**

"Mukuro-sama has those too…" Chrome mumbled.

"Wait!" Gokudera shouted. "Why did you have a Hell Ring with you? The last time you showed your Mist flame to me, you used your Varia Ring!"

"Remember that time, when I told you about how Xanxus threw me out of the window, about a year back?" Iiya said.

Dino sighed, having a slight sense of what had happened.

"I used to hang my Hell Ring on the necklace which my parents gave me, since the Hell Ring was passed down to me from my mother."

"But rings shouldn't be destroyed that easily… Right?" Yamamoto asked.

"Yeah…" Iiya muttered, recalling the last time she had the ring with her. "When Xanxus destroyed the necklace, there was nothing left behind."

Iiya paused for a moment, biting her lower lip nervously before she continued.

"But… It doesn't make sense. The ring couldn't have been destroyed just like that."

"So, where is it?" Reborn asked.

"I don't know…" Iiya sighed. "I've actually snuck into Xanxus' office a few times to look for it, but I either found nothing or got found out by Xanxus."

"So, it's missing?" Tsuna asked.

"Yeah." Iiya nodded. "I'd hate to think that it's been picked up by someone else though. Especially if that person intends to use it for evil."

* * *

The next round required the choice of two people from each side, so Tsuna volunteered to go, with Gokudera immediately offering to accompany him. Iiya sighed, not expecting herself to fight two rounds one after the other. She fished into the box and picked up a pink ball, walking forward to the center of the room. Nodding at Rush, she dropped the pink ball onto herself, engulfing herself in a puff of pink smoke. In a split second, the smoke cleared, revealing a slightly taller version of Iiya. However, she had a different look in her eyes, as it appeared calmer than her younger self's. Her dressing had not changed much, besides the fact that she now wore black jeans which were neatly tucked into her boots, instead of shorts. Definitely, she looked more mature, and also surprised to see younger versions of the Vongola guardians in front of her. Rush quickly whispered into her ear, explaining the situation to her.

"Oh, training?" She asked. "The younger version of myself had always been tougher on the Vongola's guardians compared to the subordinates from other divisions…"

She drew her weapon and smiled.

"Let's go, Rush."

Lighting her crosscuts with Sky flames, she went for Tsuna immediately, only to be blocked by Gokudera's Sistema C.A.I.. She kicked against the screens, propelling herself backwards and landing on her feet. She pondered for a moment, knowing that her Mist ring would not help, with Tsuna's hyper intuition. Yet, she was the one who helped Gokudera strengthen his weapon, thus she was fully aware of what she could and could not do to Sistema C.A.I.. Sighing, she looked at Rush, who drew his twin daggers and used his Rain flames to attack Gokudera, slowly drawing him away from Tsuna and giving Iiya the opportunity to attack. Tsuna threw a punch at Iiya, who blocked it effortlessly with her crosscut. She attempted to use her other crosscut to hit him, but Tsuna caught her arm, preventing her from striking him.

"I like your speed," she smiled, before turning her body dropping her heel against his stomach, using that momentary distraction to shake off his grasp.

Tsuna, as expected, showed no signs of deterrence. He flew towards her again, starting to get on the offensive at he threw a series of quick punches and elbow drops, each of them quick enough to force Iiya to defend rather than dodge. Iiya could feel herself about to break out into a smile, impressed by how far he had come within the three months he had been training with her.

She glanced sideways to look at Rush, who had finally tranquilized one of the screens in Sistema C.A.I.. However, Gokudera was firing his ammunition so quickly that Rush had yet to find an opportunity to get close to him. Rush knew that throwing his dagger was not an option at this point, as the screen would just cause his dagger to bounce off and it would be a waste of time. It was practically a stalemate at this point and the timer was counting down to the last minute. Iiya instantly called out to him and he nodded, as the two of them switched places almost instantaneously. Iiya landed right in front of Gokudera, leaving him stunned as he looked at the older version of her, noticing how she had only grown slightly taller.

"I feel like I've been looking at the older versions of all of you for so long, that I almost forgot what you looked like when you were young, Hayato."

"We can talk next time," he said, switching his bullets.

"Your harshness with words hasn't changed…" She muttered under her breath, making sure she was barely audible.

She took out a small envelope from her pocket and handed it to him.

"Don't show this to my younger self, okay?" She smiled.

"What's this?" He asked.

"Hmm, a form of motivation for you to keep fighting?" Iiya laughed, before her expression softened all of a sudden.

"Huh?" Gokudera was completely confused at this point.

"She has your eyes, Hayato."

With that, a puff of pink smoke appeared again, as the older version of Iiya was replaced with her current version again. She looked at Rush, who was still standing, despite having taken quite a beating from Tsuna.

"You got more durable, huh?" She chuckled.

"Yeah," Rush grinned. "Even if I don't act like an officer all the time, I know my duties well enough to know the importance of daily training."

"Good."

* * *

The next two rounds involved solo battles, with Ryohei and Chrome going against Reborn and Dino respectively. They were able to remain standing throughout the ten minutes, leaving Iiya quite satisfied as it served to show how far they had come since the start of their training. Ryohei's Maximum Ingram had gotten significantly stronger and he was able to increase the speed of his footwork, expanding his reach and ability to deal more damage. As for Chrome, her illusions were much better than before, though she had yet to reach Mukuro's level.

Gokudera was still in a daze, even though his eyes were fully focused on the fights taking place before him. He did not understand what the future Iiya was talking about at all. He sighed, knowing that he could only investigate it further once he had the opportunity to open the envelope in privacy.

* * *

Once he arrived home with Iiya, he immediately chased her to take her bath, wanting to be alone to open the envelope.

"Huh?" Iiya was flustered, giving him a strange look.

"Just go!" He hurried her, grabbing her clothes from the closet and pushing it into her hands.

"Umm, can you help me buy some milk for Uri from the store?" She asked, picking up her towel.

"Oh… Sure." He grumbled. "Now go and take a shower!"

"Alright, alright!" Iiya groaned. "You're acting all weird today…"

* * *

Gokudera snatched up his keys and walked out of the house, carefully opening the envelope to see what was inside. His eyes widened and there was a puzzled look on his face as he examined the photo it contained. The photo depicted a young girl, who was about four or five years old. She had clear green eyes, which looked strangely similar to his own. She was sitting on the grass, wearing a pink dress with a look of pure joy on her face.

"Who is she…" He muttered to himself. "And what does she have to do with me?"

Grumbling, he kept the photo back in the envelope before placing it in his pocket. Even though he could not comprehend it now, he made a mental note to himself to keep it well. After all, it was something that the future Iiya had given to him, even if her present self didn't know about it.

"Jeez… Why couldn't she be more direct though…"

* * *

Iiya had stepped out, after taking a nice long shower. She hadn't done so in a long time, since Gokudera would usually rush her if she took too long. She got herself dressed, before realising something was missing.

"I didn't bring in my shirt..?" She gasped.

Sighing, she ran her towel down the ends of her hair once more, before cautiously sneaking out of the bathroom and heading towards the closet. Suddenly, she heard a soft purr coming from the kitchen area. Uri crawled to her side, rubbing her body against her leg and looking up at her with her huge red eyes.

"It's time for your dinner, right?" Iiya smiled, putting her towel aside and kneeling down to pick her up. "I'll go get dressed first ok?"

"Meow!" Uri refused, giving her a light scratch on her chest and hissing.

"Uri!" Gokudera dropped the grocery bag onto the table, threw off his coat and ran over. "What the hell are you doing, Uri?"

Gokudera went silent once he noticed how tightly Iiya was holding Uri.

"Uh…" He found it difficult to look away somehow, even though he was a bit embarrassed.

"Could you get me a shirt?" Iiya mumbled, still holding Uri and using her to cover up her chest.

"Ok… S-sure…" He stammered, hastily reaching into the closet and pulling out one of his long-sleeved button-down shirts.

Iiya stared at him for a moment, wondering what she should do, before giving a sigh and taking the shirt with her free hand. She wasn't in much of a position to bargain anyway, the priority at hand was to get herself dressed.

"Thanks."

She put Uri down and let the kitten scamper away, as she proceeded to put the shirt on. For some reason, Gokudera was unable to look away, still in shock due to everything that was happening before him. Iiya noticed how red his face had gotten at that point, and couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Why're you looking at me like that?" She teased him, pinching his flushed cheeks.

"I SHOULD BE ASKING YOU!" He raised his voice, sounding frustrated. "Did you want to catch a cold?"

"No need to be so shy, Hayato." She smirked. "I heard that while you were in the future, you and Tsuna walked in on Lal in the lake and-"

"SHUT UP!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I've always liked watching the characters get flustered over small things XD I laughed so hard at the lake scene while I was rewatching the series! Next chapter, there'll be a bit of a timeskip and it'll either be a filler kind of chapter (Omake) or I'll introduce someone I've been waiting to integrate into the story! I haven't really decided, because I want to develop Gokudera and Iiya's relationship outside of work and mafia business, yet I do want to get on with the plot...

Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed the story so far :) Do leave a review if you'd like to, any feedback on the story is much appreciated :) Thank you so much and do stay tuned!


	18. Chapter 18

**CHAPTER 18: HOW TO MAKE HER HAPPY**

 _This story will be told from Gokudera's point of view._

* * *

"A d-d-date?" I stuttered.

Juudaime, Baseball Nut and Lawn Head cornered me after our training one day, obviously taking advantage of the opportunity to question me when Iiya wasn't around. I don't mind Juudaime asking me such things, of course. After all, as his right-hand man, it was my duty to let my business be known to him, unless it would cause him worry. However, as for the other two, I bet they just wanted to poke their noses into my affairs like they always do.

"Yes!" Lawn head pumped his fist in the air, blasting my eardrums with his voice. "It's a man's job to make his girl happy by taking her on a date!"

"Gokudera, you look like you're hearing this for the first time!" Baseball Nut laughed, irking me completely.

As a right-hand man, surely I don't have time for 'dates' and things like that. In the first place, I wasn't expecting myself to get attached to any girl any time soon, or any time in my life, for that matter. That's what I thought until Iiya came along. So much has happened between us these past three months, starting with Uri jumping on my head and making me kiss her by accident. Sometimes, I feel like having such weird feelings towards her are troublesome. I would be better off spending my time helping Juudaime. Yet, part of me wants to be close to her all the time, and it's too embarrassing to admit that I'm massively attached to her.

"You want to make her happy right, Gokudera-kun?" Juudaime smiled at me, causing me to snap back to my senses.

"… I do want to, Juudaime!" I replied excitedly. "But… How do I do that? Is that date supposed to help me accomplish that?"

"That's why we went on an extreme search for these!"

Lawn Head dumped three books before me. I cringed as he dropped them in front of me, wondering what these books could possibly be about. I nearly choked once I read the titles of each book.

"What the hell?" I screamed, positive that my blood vessels were about to burst soon.

"Senpai went into a bookstore with us to help search for these, Gokudera!" Baseball Nut chuckled. "You know how much Senpai hates any place with books in them!"

"Just take them, Gokudera-kun!" Juudaime gave me a bright smile. "I believe you can do this!"

"Juudaime…"

* * *

I placed the bag containing the books on my coffee table, taking off my coat and adjusting the radiator. It was considerably warm inside the house, since the temperatures outside were higher today. I sat down on the bed and heaved a sigh of relief as I saw Iiya sleeping in the spot next to me. She had been working late every night, drawing up plans for our trainings and writing reports for DS55. It was obvious that she had been trying to hide her exhaustion and honestly, she was doing quite a good job. But of course I knew, since she had been drinking coffee instead of her usual strawberry milk. She seemed quite adamant on keeping up her act though, still insisting on cooking for the both of us, even though I had told her numerous times that I could just buy us something or we could eat out. I stared at her sleeping face for a few seconds, before running my hand through her hair. Her files were scattered beside her, her pen still in her hand. Though, it was evident that she had been tossing and turning quite a bit, since the first two buttons of her shirt had loosened and had unbuttoned itself. She had been wearing my clothes more often nowadays, for some unknown reason. Admittedly, it was a bit annoying, since it means that I have less clothes to wear, but she did look nice in them and she did mention how much she likes it. I reached out towards her shirt, intending to button it up, when her hand suddenly caught my wrist.

"Hmm?" Her eyelids opened slowly, bringing her clear blue eyes into full view. "What're you trying to do, Hayato?"

"HUH?" I jumped back instantly, caught off guard by her actions.

"Were you being naughty or something?"

She gave me a playful smirk and I was at a loss for words. I wasn't sure if she was just in a daze and wasn't thinking straight, since she usually acted like that whenever she had just woken up. But then again, she's been pulling cheeky lines like that recently when we're alone. It's so different from the mature, intelligent girl I see most of the time.

"I WASN'T!" I retorted.

All of a sudden, she got up and sat herself on my lap, her body facing mine directly. She stared right into my eyes and I knew that I couldn't possibly look away. I could feel her face getting closer to mine and before I knew it, I was taken over by my own instincts. I wasn't even… No, I couldn't even think straight when she gave me that look.

* * *

"Iiya?"

She looked up at me, still half-awake. Somehow, she was so tired that she ended up falling asleep again while sitting on my lap. She practically acted like a baby once she fell asleep, her head rested on my shoulder and her arms hugging my waist. I had difficulty trying to adjust my shirt while she was in that position, and I couldn't move an inch. I know I have a soft spot for her, but no way was I letting her fall asleep on me like that.

"Yeah?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"You're free tomorrow, right?"

She gave me a weird look. The way she was looking at me right now just made me even more nervous.

"Yeah, why?"

"Wanna go out?"

"You wanna go back to the headquarters on your off-day to train?"

I cringed, shaking my head violently.

"No! That's not what I meant!"

"Then?" She grabbed my ear and pulled it.

"OUCH!" I smacked her hand away. "Shit, I don't know how to say this!"

"Just say it!" She poked my cheek.

"LET'S GO ON A DATE, DAMN IT!" I shouted.

"Oh," she tried her best to stifle her laughter. "Ok!"

* * *

Making sure Iiya was fast asleep, I went to the balcony and took out the books that Juudaime had bestowed upon me, along with those that Baseball Nut and Lawn Head had given me. I raised my eyebrow at the book that Lawn Head had gotten, wondering if he had even browsed the book before giving it to me. A book with a title like "How to Love Her Extremely" couldn't sound any sketchier. I opened the book and nearly choked on the images I saw, flinging it aside instinctively. I shook my head, picking up the book that Baseball Nut had gotten for me. It was definitely better that what Lawn Head had gotten, but the advice the book gave was beyond comprehension.

"Making her happy is all about feeling the moment?" I raised my eyebrow at that statement. "How does that make any sense?"

I put the book down, sensing that it would not be of any help in helping me plan the ideal date. I picked up the book Juudaime had gotten for me, and as expected, it was the most helpful one out of the three. Putting on my glasses, I got down to some serious reading, with a notebook and pen by my side and leaning comfortably against the sliding door. I reached for my box of cigarettes and lit one up, taking a long drag of my cigarette and blowing it, deep in thought. Even though the book was rather helpful, the more I looked over my plan, the more nauseous I felt. Some of the things the book had recommended didn't sit well with me. For one, we live in the same apartment, so why do I have to wait for her downstairs with a flower? The flower would die in a few days and I could just wait for her in the apartment, leading me to decide to strike out that portion. In fact, most of the things I had written down sounded stupid, anyway. I tore out the page and crumpled it up, throwing it aside and began writing down a new list.

* * *

It was three in the morning already. I hadn't gotten a single wink of sleep and I was already done with my second pack of cigarettes since I had sat down. Scratching my head, I racked my brain for ideas, but couldn't come up with any. I closed my eyes and sighed in exasperation, when my ears suddenly picked up the rustling of paper. My eyes shot open and I saw Iiya crouching down, reading the plan I had just discarded.

"ARGH DON'T READ THAT!" I reached out to grab the paper, only to have Iiya put her palm in my face and push me away, while she read the paper. She had clearly noticed the other pieces of crumpled paper lying around and broke out into laughter.

I looked away in embarrassment, taking another puff of my cigarette when I felt her arms tighten around my waist.

"You're so silly, Hayato."

"What do you mean by that?" I grumbled. "And you know how I feel about you calling me by my first name!"

"I know you secretly like it," she giggled, kissing me on the cheek playfully.

"You've been getting a little cheekier, haven't you?" I mumbled. "You're becoming like Uri when she plays with my feelings."

"Uri doesn't do this to you, does she?"

I felt something soft touch my lips, and my vision was blocked by her smiling face.

"I think you're silly because you're actually reading up on ways to make me happy as your girlfriend, but yet you don't seem to understand that I'm already happy."

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "But I never even brought you out on a proper date!"

"You don't really have to…" She said. "Given how busy we are, we don't really have time for that. And besides, just being close to you makes me happy."

I let out a small laugh as she yawned, still not fully recovered from the sleep debt she had been accumulating. Putting out my cigarette on the ashtray and putting my glasses on the coffee table, I swept her off her feet, picking her up as she let out a small yelp of surprise. Gently, I lowered her onto the bed and lay down next to her. I pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead.

"Being close to you makes me happy too."

She smiled and kissed me back on the cheek.

"Wanna just stay home and watch a movie tomorrow?" She asked. "We can always go out properly another time. Preferably after we're done settling the issue with Xanxus."

"Sure. We can order food in, so you won't have to cook," I nodded. "But what about the rest of the day?"

"Mm, I think we can spend the rest of the day like this."

"Huh? As in, you just wanna stay in bed for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah!" She smiled.

"Too tired to go out?" I asked her.

"Yeah… Will you stay with me?"

She reached out her hand towards me and I instantly held her small palm in my hands, intertwining my fingers with hers.

"Yeah," I nodded, kissing her hand softly. "I'll always stay with you."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Somehow, I've always imagined Gokudera to be the type to stay home with a girl rather than take her out. I would see Yamamoto and Ryohei being more likely to bring the girl out on a date.

I hope you all enjoyed this filler chapter :) Things are going to start getting more serious in the next few chapters, till the whole issue with Xanxus resolves. And I guess it also means that this story is approaching its end T.T

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) Do leave a review to tell me your thoughts, if you'd like! Thank you so much for reading this story and stay tuned :)


	19. Chapter 19

**CHAPTER 19: TIME**

It had been nearly a year since Iiya had met Tsuna and his Guardians. Time had passed more quickly than she had expected, with Tsuna finally turning nineteen and herself reaching eighteen years of age recently. Lighting a cigarette and watching it burn out, Iiya's finger somehow found its way to the pendants hanging around on her neck.

* * *

 _"_ _This is from all of us, Iiya-san!" Tsuna thrust a small red box into Iiya's hands._

 _Tsuna and his friends had decided to host a party for her birthday, teaming up with Rush to keep her distracted while they decorated the conference room where they always gathered. Though they knew that Iiya was too busy to have a full-blown party, they wanted to at least have a small celebration for her with a cake and presents. Iiya opened the red box and her eyes lit up immediately, as she took out the necklace. There were two small pendants hanging on the chain, one depicting the Vongola Family's logo and the other depicting the DS55's logo. She smiled and thanked everyone, feeling touched as no one besides her officers had ever done such a thing for her before._

 _"_ _Let's always be friends, Iiya!" Yamamoto laughed._

 _"_ _Wear it now! Wear it now, Iiya!" Lambo shouted._

 _"_ _Yeah!" Ryohei joined in the shouting, patting Gokudera on the back. "Time to do your job as a man, Octopus Head!"_

 _"_ _What?" Gokudera shouted back at him, getting worked up again._

 _"_ _Help her." Chrome muttered, taking Ryohei's side unexpectedly._

 _"_ _Jeez, alright, alright!"_

 _Gokudera surrendered, sighing as he took the necklace in his hands and walked behind Iiya. His face turned red, while he pushed her hair away from her neck and helped her put it on. The sound of the camera shutter rang incessantly, irking Gokudera and causing him to turn to his sister._

 _"_ _WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SIS?" He growled, his face turning even redder as she continued to take his pictures._

 _"_ _Taking pictures for multiple purposes." She grinned. "Firstly, if you ever refuse to eat my cooking again, I'll just use these to blackmail you until you agree to eat it. Secondly, I'm sure everyone would like to have a rare memento of my cute younger brother's embarrassed face."_

 _"_ _Haha!" Yamamoto burst out laughing. "That's true!"_

 _"_ _Lambo-san wants a copy!" Lambo cackled. "Lambo-san wants to draw on Stupidera's stupid face!"_

 _"_ _Oh!" Ryohei piped up, enlightened by Lambo's words. "Then I want a copy too!"_

 _"_ _Thirdly," Bianchi gave a smirk. "It's to allow me to be a good aunt in future and show your kids how childish you were when you were dating!"_

 _"_ _K-k-kids?" Gokudera nearly choked on his words._

 _"_ _You'll let me have the honour of sharing yours and Hayato's stories with your children next time, right?" Bianchi smiled, holding Iiya's hands in hers._

 _Iiya stared at Gokudera, who stared back at her, their faces gradually burning up simultaneously. She shot a look at him, signalling to him that she had no clue on how to reply Bianchi. Gokudera sighed in exasperation, shaking his head. Bianchi laughed and let go of Iiya's hands, telling her that she could give her a reply next time, causing Iiya to heave a sigh of relief._

 _"_ _Alright!" Ryohei exclaimed. "Time to end the ceremony with a manly show of affection!"_

 _"_ _What's that supposed to mean?" Gokudera shouted._

 _"_ _Do your thing, Uri!" Yamamoto smiled, holding the cat up._

 _"_ _They got so excited over this?" Tsuna shrieked, as Uri tackled Gokudera forward and the camera's shutter went off._

* * *

Iiya glanced at the photographs on her table and smiled. Beside the group photograph they took that day was a photo of Gokudera falling forward, with Uri latching onto his head and his lips landing squarely on hers. Even though it was a strange photo, she found it rather endearing somehow. She sighed and closed her eyes, glad that things had been rather peaceful recently and she had time to take a breather.

"Oi, stop smiling to yourself already…" Gokudera grumbled, looking away from her as he took another drag of his cigarette.

She snatched the cigarette out of his hands and took a puff, before he managed to grab it back. Sighing, he watched her sit back down and lean back on her chair. He stole a glance at the photographs she had on her table and sighed.

"You've been taking quite a lot of photos recently, huh?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Before I came to Japan, Dino had actually given me a camera for my birthday. I never really got the chance to use it much until a few months back, when I had less things to do."

"Still, you don't have to bring it wherever you go!"

"I do," she muttered, barely audible.

"Ugh…" Gokudera groaned, shoving his free hand in his pocket. "I really don't know how to handle you sometimes…"

Just as he was about to bend down and kiss her, the alarm in the facility suddenly went off, the siren wailing loudly throughout the headquarters. Iiya jumped out from her seat instantly, gulping nervously as a sinister feeling clouded her heart. She dashed through the hallway, running into the main hall with her crosscuts in hand. Tsuna and his Guardians ran into her while she was running, following her to the main hall. Once they arrived, their eyes widened in fear at the sight before them. Her subordinates lay incapacitated on the ground, and the facility was in a complete wreck. The glass doors had shattered and the computers were severely damaged, unable to function any longer. Rush ran to Iiya's side, standing in front of her defensively as their intruders trampled over the bodies. Iiya noticed that Rush himself wasn't unscathed, suffering a large wound running down his arm and several more on his legs.

"Making me come all the way here for you again, huh?"

* * *

Iiya clenched her fist as the man approached her slowly. His hands gripped his guns firmly and his Varia jacket hung comfortably on his shoulders. His hair had gotten longer since the last time they met, but it didn't take much for Iiya to recognise him.

"No one asked you to come here, Xanxus."

Xanxus stepped out, with Mammon following behind him. Iiya noticed that Mammon was holding something familiar in his palm, and a sinking feeling began to rise in her chest. Opening his palm, Iiya tried to hold back her shock at the item she saw.

"My Hell Ring…" She muttered. "What is it doing with you?"

"The boss had kept it with him ever since the day before you backed out of the engagement," Mammon explained.

Tsuna and his Guardians instantly formed a circle around Iiya, out of protection. Iiya could already feel herself shaking with anger, as she looked at her fallen subordinates and the destroyed facility. Gokudera was standing in front of her, reaching for her hand and gripping it tightly. She could feel him trembling, knowing that he was afraid he could not protect her again. She squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him, but he did not turn back to look at her, focusing his glare on Xanxus.

"We're just here to bring you a belated birthday gift, so why don't you accept it?" Mammon smirked.

All of a sudden, Iiya felt pain shooting through her entire body, dropping her weapon and crumbling to the floor instantly. _"Mammon… He's using my Hell Ring against all of us!"_ Iiya thought, as she watched everyone else around her fall to the ground, their bodies overcome with pain due to the effects of the Hell Ring.

"Whatever this horn points at will force its unlucky target to succumb in pain… Such a powerful ring would be too valuable for me to sell, even if it would bring in huge profits."

Gokudera continued to hold onto her wrist, struggling to keep his eyes open as his body was writhing in pain. He could already feel tears coming to his eyes, the pain reaching its peak as he felt as if he was being impaled continuously all over his body. He could feel his fingers losing its grip on her, and he noticed that she was trying her best not to cry. Suddenly, he felt Xanxus kick him aside, intensifying the physical and emotional pain he felt as he watched him hover over Iiya. Xanxus dug the heel of his boot into Iiya's neck and smashed the back of his gun against her temple, causing her to pass out immediately. Everyone watched helplessly as he picked Iiya up, carrying her over his shoulder and strolling out of the door.

"Get rid of them, Mammon."

With those last words, both Xanxus and Iiya disappeared from their views, with Mammon left floating above them.

* * *

"Well then, this is it." Mammon smirked. "With this, the boss will get both his rightful position as the boss of Vongola and his rightful partner."

Gokudera clenched his fists, trying to muster up enough energy to stand up and fight. He needed to protect Tsuna. He needed to protect the rest of his family. Most importantly, he needed to go after Xanxus and get Iiya back. But at this point, his body was in so much pain that he was beginning to lose consciousness.

 _"_ _Is this the end..?"_ He thought, as he glanced at everyone around him.

Just as he was about to pass out, he could see smoke coming from Chrome's body, concealing her completely. His vision started to blacken, and the last thing he heard was a familiar, distinctive sound.

"Kufufufu…"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I guess it's clear by now who has finally entered the story :D Next chapter, Tsuna and his Guardians will find their resolve and finally decide to face Xanxus. Gokudera will find something interesting at home, which helps all of them firm up their determination. The other officers of DS55 will also make their appearances soon and I'm quite excited to write it :)

Thank you for reading this chapter! Do leave a review if you'd like to give any feedback/comments on the story :) Thank you for all your support so far and do stay tuned!


	20. Chapter 20

**CHAPTER 20: HER WORDS**

"Wake up, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna opened his eyes slowly, his body still recovering for the immense pain he had felt earlier on before passing out. His eyes widened once he saw the man standing before him, in Chrome's place.

"Mukuro…" He muttered. "Thank you."

"I would've liked to distance myself from your matters, but it seems that you needed my help."

Tsuna looked around him, as his guardians, Reborn and Rush slowly came to. Gokudera slowly sat up, his eyes scanning his surroundings and staring blankly at the doorway, where Xanxus left and took Iiya with him. He struggled to get himself back on his feet, staggering towards the doorway.

"Gokudera, where are you going?" Yamamoto shouted over him, fumbling to grab his weapon.

"Where I'm going, you ask?" Gokudera muttered, clenching his fist as he tried to hold his pain in.

Yamamoto frowned, knowing what he was about to say.

"I'm gonna go after that bastard, of course!"

"And can you really do that, in that state?" Reborn asked, forcing Gokudera to rethink his decision.

"Gokudera-kun…"

Tsuna walked over to his friend, pausing for a moment before giving him a hug. Gokudera didn't even look at Tsuna, burying his face in Tsuna's shoulder, ensuring his face was covered as he felt himself break apart. Yamamoto tried his best to hold in his pain as well, walking over and putting his arm around Gokudera. Ryohei sighed and join them, carrying a very solemn look on his face.

"I'm sorry for losing my cool, Juudaime…" Gokudera apologised weakly.

"It's ok, Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna replied.

"We let Xanxus take her away too easily…" Yamamoto shook his head.

"We were an extreme failure… Both as her friends and her students." Ryohei mumbled.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna turned to face Mukuro.

"The effects of the Hell Ring will last for a few hours. You should recuperate first, then form a plan to get this girl back," Mukuro said. "It seems that this girl is someone Chrome cares about, so I will be ready to offer my assistance for her sake."

With that said, Mukuro vanished again, shrouding himself in mist before switching places with Chrome, whose knees buckled from the pain. Rush ran over to help her up, taking Mukuro's words into consideration.

"I agree with that guy," Rush nodded, catching everyone else's attention.

"Same here," Reborn added.

"We can't do anything now, since we have no idea where Xanxus went. Given that Mukuro was here and we're all in one piece, he must've defeated Mammon… And as expected, Mammon escaped before Mukuro could finish him off, just like how it was during your Representative Battles," Rush explained.

"After the effects wear off, we should all go home and rest. We'll come back here tomorrow morning and formulate a plan," Reborn spoke. "I'll contact Dino and if I have to, I'll ask the Ninth to find out more details about the wedding."

"Iemitsu told us officers about Xanxus' intentions for going after our boss," Rush noted. "And I believe the six of us won't allow him to have his way."

Rush stood up, struggling to get to his feet.

"Well then, if you'll excuse me, I need to make some calls." Rush's voice sounded extremely serious. "I need to inform the other five officers about our boss' situation, as well as request for help with fixing the facility and tending to the injured. You guys should head home once you're feeling better."

"Tsuna, remember to tell Iemitsu what happened once we get home," Reborn ordered. "Kidnapping the boss of an organisation within the Vongola is a severe offence."

Reborn's face darkened with anger.

"Especially because it's Iiya, the CEDEF has every right to get involved now."

* * *

Gokudera opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside, dropping his groceries on the kitchen counter. His apartment felt strangely cold and empty without her around. He sat down on the floor in front of the coffee table, spacing out as Uri climbed onto his lap. Uri seemed to understand how her owner was feeling, curling up on his lap and purring softly, while nuzzling her head against his stomach. He stroked Uri's fur, hoping that it would calm him down, but unfortunately it had no effect.

"DAMN IT!"

Gokudera slammed his fist onto the table over and over again, filled with resentment towards Xanxus, as well as himself. Every single time he was charged to protect her, he had failed miserably. Now, he had no clue on where Iiya was hidden and there was nothing he could do for her.

"Meow?"

Uri hopped off his lap and crawled under the table, as if she was searching for something. He peeked under the table and noticed that there was something under Uri's paw. Taking the mysterious object, he discovered that it contained a DVD, with words written on it.

"For Juudaime and his Guardians..?"

* * *

The next day, Reborn, Tsuna and his Guardians gathered in the conference room in DS55's headquarters, along with Rush. Repairs were still ongoing in the main hall, with personnel from Vongola's allies helping out with the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure. It was rather noisy, but thankfully, the conference room was soundproof and they were able to converse without interruption.

"For us?" Tsuna asked.

"Yeah…" Gokudera muttered. "Uri found it under my table yesterday."

"Let's watch this before we begin the conference, shall we?" Rush suggested, putting the DVD into the player and playing it immediately.

Once he pressed play, Iiya's face instantly appeared on the screen. She was sitting on the bed, her legs crossed, with Uri sleeping by her side.

"Hey guys."

Hearing her voice again left Gokudera speechless. Yamamoto glanced at him, with a worried look in his eyes.

"If you all are watching this now… It probably means that Xanxus took me with him, and someone in this room got so mad that he banged the table at home… Until the disk got detached from the surface and dropped onto the floor."

Everyone stared at Gokudera, who simply looked away and lit up another cigarette.

"I'm going to try and make this as quick as I can before that someone gets home."

Iiya sighed and stroked Uri's fur.

"Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about training all of you." She spoke. "It's true that I've trained lots of personnel within the Vongola, both within and outside of DS55. But training a boss and his guardians are a lot trickier. I had my own concerns about each of you, and I had to prepare myself beforehand, because I didn't know what you all were like. I couldn't tell how you'd all react to being trained by someone younger than you."

At this point, Iiya was starting to smile.

"But after I got to know all of you better, all the reservations I had about you disappeared. You welcomed me not only as an instructor, but also as your friend, and I couldn't be more thankful for that."

"If Xanxus succeeds in forcing this marriage on me, I doubt he'll allow me to contact any of you. He'd do anything to restrict my ability to act independently within the Vongola. If what Iemitsu said is true, Xanxus will probably erase my influence in the mafia world and absorb DS55 into the Varia. So in case I never get to speak to any of you again, I'd like to say something to each and every one of you here."

"I'll start with the very first guardian I fought amongst all of you. Guardian of the Cloud Ring, Hibari Kyoya."

Hibari looked up, staring ahead at the screen.

"You remind me of myself when I was younger, and still in the Varia. When I first entered the Varia, all I could think about was defeating the enemy before me and completing my missions. But doing that felt meaningless to me after a while. I guess… Have patience, Hibari. Have patience and find your reason for fighting. When you fight to protect what you believe in, you demonstrate more strength and kindness than anyone could ever imagine. Don't ever forget that."

Hibari nodded and looked away, seemingly taking her words into consideration.

"Guardian of the Mist Ring, Chrome Dokuro. You're the quietest among all of Tsuna's guardians. Sometimes, I can't really tell what you're thinking. But I can feel your determination to become stronger for your friends and most importantly… I can feel how protective you are towards your boss."

Tsuna looked at Chrome immediately, smiling at her.

"Continue to open up to the rest of the Family. And don't ever think you're weak… Because your duty towards your boss and your friends is what makes you stronger each day."

Iiya watched Uri get up to sit in between her legs, before continuing.

"Guardian of the Sun Ring, Sasagawa Ryohei."

Ryohei's eyes burned with determination, nodding as if she were really speaking to him.

"I've always admired how enthusiastic you were in every training. Even when everyone else was tired, you never seemed to stop going. And not even once did you slack off in your training… It's amazing how persistent you are sometimes. Never lose that persistence, Ryohei. Keep up your spirit and continue to motivate the Family with your energy… To the extreme."

"Yes!" Ryohei nodded, acknowledging her words.

"Guardian of the Lightning Ring, Lambo."

"Iiya…" Lambo sniffled.

"The youngest of them all. I was the most worried about training you, because you were still so young. I was about your age when I joined the Varia, and I know how scary the world seems when you're still young and inexperienced. But when you're focused, you surprise me the most with your strength. Stay focused, Lambo! I'm always rooting for you, even if I can't be by your side any more."

"Iiya!" Lambo cried. "Then come back and let Lambo-san surprise you!"

"Guardian of the Rain Ring, Yamamoto Takeshi." Iiya said. "I now understand what Reborn means when he talked about you. You have a certain flair in your fighting style… You really were born for this. I'm glad that you still train hard despite that, and you're always there to calm the Family down whenever they get into their friendly quarrels. Yamamoto, I'm counting on you to keep the peace within the Family."

Yamamoto nodded, showing his acceptance of her request.

"Guardian of the Sky Ring, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Iiya-san…" Tsuna muttered.

"I'm glad that you were the chosen boss of the Vongola Family. You're the only one who possesses the kindness and generosity needed to overcome our bloodstained past. I rejected the Representative Battle, knowing that you were what the Vongola needed. And for that, I was more than willing to help you in any way. Thank you for being my friend, Tsuna. Become a boss who is strong not because of his ability to defeat foes, but for his ability to bring peace and protect those around him."

Iiya looked down for a moment and took a deep breath, knowing who was left.

"And last but not the least, the Guardian of the Storm Ring, Gokudera Hayato."

Gokudera looked at her, as she struggled to find the words she wanted to say.

"Umm… Things escalated pretty quickly between us, didn't it?"

"Yeah," he mumbled under his breath.

"You're hot-headed and harsh with your words on the surface… And even though you leave me confused sometimes, I could always sense how you felt towards me. I think… I think you were the best thing that happened to me here, you know?"

"Please don't blame yourself for being unable to protect me. I've always had a feeling that Xanxus would come for me once I turned eighteen, because that's when he was supposed to marry me."

Gokudera could hear her choking up on her words, as tears began to well up in his eyes.

"I'm going to miss spending every single day by your side, Hayato. I'm going to miss the way you scold me whenever I try to snatch your cigarettes. I'm going to miss the way you get all worked up when I tease you. And I'm going to miss… The way you hold me every night when I can't sleep, and all I can feel is your warmth around me."

Iiya used her sleeve to wipe away the tears from her eyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stay by your side, Hayato. I wish I could. But maybe it wasn't meant to be in this lifetime."

Iiya sighed.

"I'll never run out of things to say to you, so maybe I should just end here. I don't want to end this video looking sad because… You gave me more happiness than I could ever imagine."

Iiya took a deep breath and smiled brightly.

"Don't forget me, okay? Because I won't forget you."

* * *

Gokudera hit the pause button, much to everyone's surprise. They watched as he took out the envelope Iiya's older self had given him.

"This expression… It's too familiar…"

He took the picture out of the envelope, causing Tsuna and Yamamoto to gather around him.

"Why does Iiya have the same expression as this girl..?"

"Is it a picture of Iiya when she was younger?" Yamamoto asked.

"No, it isn't," Reborn hopped over to join them. "What did Iiya's future self tell you?"

Gokudera recalled the words Iiya's older counterpart had said to him when she passed him the envelope.

"She just mentioned something about her having my eyes…"

Reborn peered closely at the girl in the photograph and smiled.

"I think I know who this girl is."

"Who is she, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked.

Reborn hopped over and sat on Gokudera's shoulder.

"She's your daughter from the future."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

This chapter turned out to be much longer than I expected, so I chose to end it here. Tsuna and his guardians will firm up their resolve in the next chapter and finally meet Iiya's officers! :)

This story is already approaching its end and I hope I'll be able to deliver on these last few chapters :)

Thank you for reading this chapter! Do leave a review if you'd like to give any feedback on this story :) Thank you for reading this story so far and do stay tuned :)


	21. Chapter 21

**CHAPTER 21: RESCUE**

"HUH?" Tsuna shrieked. "Gokudera-kun's daughter?"

"Well, it's only an assumption," Reborn stated. "But then again, it's the only thing that could explain this girl's resemblance to both you and Iiya."

"It's great isn't it, Gokudera?" Yamamoto smiled.

"Huh?" Gokudera raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean by that, Baseball Idiot?"

"It means that both of you had a future together," Yamamoto replied.

Gokudera paused for a moment, pondering over Yamamoto's words. He glanced at the photograph again and he couldn't help but agree that the girl bore some resemblance to both Iiya and him. He looked at the smile on the girl's face, noticing how the expression she gave warmed his heart, the same way Iiya's did.

"We're going to find her and get her back," Tsuna stood up from his seat.

Reborn smiled, as he watched his student rally his guardians together.

"We're going to save Iiya, everyone!"

"YES!" Ryohei shouted, all pumped up. "FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE! FOR OCTOPUS HEAD'S FUTURE KID!"

"And you won't be doing this alone."

Rush stood up and put his hand on Tsuna's shoulder, smiling at him.

"None of us will stand by and watch our boss get forced into something she doesn't want to do. We want our boss to be happy too."

* * *

Locking the door to the conference room, Reborn, Dino, Tsuna and his guardians waited patiently as Rush set up the video conference with the other officers of DS55. The dialling screen was projected and before they knew it, they had established a secure connection. Five unfamiliar faces popped up onto the screen.

"Long time no see, guys!" Rush exclaimed.

"Haha, I know right!" The man with short black hair and blue eyes spoke up.

"Hi there," the second guardian mumbled under his breath. He had short, spiky brown hair, with yellow highlights. He was averting his gaze from the camera, as if he was uncomfortable with the number of people involved in the conversation.

"Yeah," A girl with purple hair spoke up, looking as if she couldn't be bothered with the conversation.

"You're so noisy, Rush!" Another girl with short, reddish-brown hair grumbled.

"Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves!" A man with dark blue hair chimed in. "My name is Gidama Jin. I'm half-Korean and half-Japanese, and I'm the officer bearing Mist flames in Iiya's Family."

"And I'm Rigaku Kyoma!" The man who spoke right after Rush exclaimed. "I'm an officer and I have Sun Flames! Nice to meet you all!"

"Pipe down, Rigaku!" The girl with reddish-brown hair shouted. "I'm the officer bearing Storm Flames and Iiya's assistant, Shikabi Kyana."

"Shikabi Kiina." The purple-haired girl said. "The officer with Cloud Flames. Also, Kyana's younger sister."

"I'm Takana Niro, the officer bearing Lightning Flames," the man with brown hair muttered.

Tsuna looked at the faces of each of Iiya's officers. _"They're so diverse… They probably came from all walks of life… These are Iiya's most trusted friends within her organisation."_ He thought. Tsuna introduced himself to Iiya's guardians, followed by every single one of his guardians.

"Okay then, so…" Tsuna spoke up.

"WAIT!" Rigaku shouted, cutting Tsuna off. "There's something ultra important that we need to find out! All members of DS55, take out your boss memo pads! NOW NOW NOW!"

All of Iiya's officers stared blankly into space, before rummaging through their desks and fishing out a small black notepad. Tsuna stared at them in bewilderment, wondering what was so important to them that they needed to find out now. All six officers, including Rush, stared at each other through their video screens, flipping the black notebook open and clutching it tightly in their hands.

"Rush, which is the guy boss likes?" Rigaku asked excitedly.

Rush pointed at Gokudera, who instantly got flustered.

"Ok then! Vongola Decimo and his other guardians, please give us one word to describe him!"

"Nice?" Tsuna laughed, scratching his head.

"Intelligent!" Yamamoto replied. "He's the smartest among all of us!"

"Stupid!" Lambo cackled, leading Gokudera to grab him by his hair. "AHHHHH LET GO OF LAMBO-SAN!"

"Rash!" Ryohei shouted. "Extremely rash!"

"Shut up!" Gokudera retorted. "Stop insulting me! I still have to preserve my pride as Juudaime's right-hand man!"

"Angry." Chrome nodded.

"Disruptive." Hibari simply looked away, unwilling to get involved. "Just like the rest."

Tsuna looked at Rush and the other officers, completely confused as they began scribbling down in their notebooks.

"One."

"Three."

"Three."

"Four."

"Two."

"FIVE!" Rigaku cheered. "YESSSSSSS I WON! PAY UP, BITCHES!"

 _"_ _What exactly is going on?"_ Tsuna thought, his mouth left agape in confusion.

"I KNEW OUR BOSS WOULD GO FOR THE ANGSTY, DELINQUENT, BAD BOY KIND OF GUY!" Rigaku exclaimed.

"Well… At least I predicted that she would like someone who could keep up with her intellect…" Niro mumbled to himself.

"I can't believe I didn't win!" Rush screamed. "I thought I totally had this in the bag!"

Kyana seemed to noticed Tsuna and the other guardians' confusion, and coughed loudly. The other officers sat up straight all of a sudden, returning to their previously serious demeanour.

"I apologise on behalf of Iiya's officers. You see, we had a bet on the traits Iiya's future boyfriend would have," Kyana explained. "The one who listed the most number of traits correctly wins."

"AND I WON!" Rigaku jumped to his feet and cackled loudly.

"SHUT UP, RIGAKU!" Kyana shouted. "WE HAVE SERIOUS BUSINESS TO DEAL WITH!"

"Oops, sorry…" Rigaku apologised, settling back down in his seat. "All of you can transfer your cash to me later…"

"Rigaku…" Kyana was seething with rage by now. "Don't make me fly all the way to America just to beat you up!"

"So noisy…" Kiina grumbled, rolling her eyes.

"She's angry…" Niro mumbled.

"I guess only Iiya can keep us all in check during meetings, huh?" Jin laughed.

"Clearly!" Rush grinned.

Tsuna and his guardians stared blankly at one another, a similar though surfacing in their minds.

 _"_ _THEY'RE SO WEIRD!"_

* * *

"Five days from now?" Gokudera asked.

"Yeah…" Niro sighed. "I managed to gather information from our intelligence units. Apparently, the wedding will be held in Italy five days from now. I'm still working on trying to get the exact location though."

"We don't know a lot of details about this though…" Kiina added. "For one, the wedding will probably be heavily guarded by Varia members."

"Don't worry, Tsuna's father is the head of CEDEF," Reborn assured them. "He'll be helping us with this. After all, he watched Iiya grow up too."

"That's good to know…" Jin smiled. "Oh, what's this?"

"What happened, Jin?" Rigaku asked.

Jin's face brightened up.

"Looks like one of my subordinates managed to get his hands on a wedding invitation. We have a location!"

"That's extremely good news!" Ryohei rejoiced.

"Niro, can you get a blueprint of the location where the wedding is held?" Kyana asked. "Once we get a definite scope of the area, we can begin formulating our plan of attack."

"And we'll help you with that!" Yamamoto nodded.

"Fighting alongside Vongola Decimo, eh?" Jin chuckled. "Well, it sure is an honour!"

"I'm so sorry to trouble you with our affairs, Vongola Decimo…" Kyana bowed her head apologetically.

"It's alright, Iiya's our friend too!" Tsuna smiled. "And we're going to save her!"

"Time to enforce your authority as the boss of the Vongola, Tsuna!" Reborn said.

Tsuna nodded, his eyes filled with determination.

"Then, let's begin coming up with a strategy."

* * *

The entire room was pitch black, thanks to the cloth covering her eyes. Iiya struggled to speak, but failed to make a sound, due to the tape that was stuck tightly across her mouth. She could not tell where she was, but she sensed enough tension to know that she was not safe. After all, how safe could she possibly be if Xanxus had captured her? She struggled against the restraints holding her wrists and ankles together, her ears picking up the sounds of metal chains clinking against each other. Her back was beginning to hurt from being on the cold, hard ground for too long. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a metal gate opening, and the clunking of boots coming towards her. Before she knew it, the cloth covering her eyes was removed and Xanxus and Belphegor stood before her.

"It's time to eat, Iiya-chan," Belphegor chuckled, tearing the tape off her mouth. "Boss wants to make sure you're healthy and well-fed before you walk down the aisle."

"You'd better eat," Xanxus ordered, pointing his gun to her temple.

"I don't seem to have a choice, do I?" Iiya rolled her eyes.

"You don't," Belphegor laughed. "Shi shi shi, unless you want the boss to go after your subordinates and the Vongola Decimo's Family."

Iiya gritted her teeth and clenched her fists angrily, causing her chains to rattle slightly. She sighed, feeling slightly resigned to her situation.

"Time to eat up then, Iiya-chan!" Belphegor grinned.

* * *

"So it's set then?" Yamamoto asked.

The officers of DS55 all nodded simultaneously, fully comprehending the plan and agreeing upon it.

"In the meanwhile, all of you should continue to train with your Vongola Boxes," Reborn stated. "I know that Iiya never got to finish that phase of training with you, but you should prepare to fight with it. We may be outnumbered on that day and don't forget, we still have Xanxus and the officers of Varia to deal with."

Tsuna and his guardians nodded, bidding farewell to the officers of DS55 and disconnecting from the video conference. Gokudera gripped his Vongola box tightly, determined to finish up the last phase of training on his own. Even though he had mastered the use of the Vongola Box during his battles in the future, he wanted to make sure that he was still up to standard. Tsuna watched as Gokudera ran off, heading for the training room. He and Yamamoto smiled, running after Gokudera, only to be joined by Ryohei and the other guardians as well.

 _"_ _Hang on, Iiya-san!"_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Next chapter will finally be about the much-anticipated wedding gatecrash! I hope I've made Iiya's officers distinctive enough, I would've loved to elaborate more on them and develop their characters more here, but this story's focus isn't on them so maybe I'll save it for next time :)

Shoutout to Arthur Moebius and Echo-Of-Stories for your reviews :) Thank you so much!

Thank you all for reading this chapter! I hope you've been enjoying this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it :) Any feedback would be appreciated, so do leave a review if you'd like! Thank you for the support so far and do stay tuned!


	22. Chapter 22

**CHAPTER 22: VONGOLA + DEL SANGUE 55**

Tsuna and his Guardians gathered in the conference room for the last time before heading to Italy. The wedding was due to take place tomorrow at noon and even though they had weathered many difficult battles together, Tsuna couldn't help but feel nervous about having to confront enemies again. Especially given that his friend had been held hostage by them. One wrong move could cost them very dearly, and with Xanxus' temper and hatred towards them, the possibility of Xanxus killing Iiya was very high. The officers were counting on Iiya's authority within the DS55 as Xanxus' reason for keeping her alive, knowing that no subordinate would listen to another boss besides Iiya. If Xanxus wanted to successfully absorb the DS55 with as little trouble as possible, he would need Iiya to keep her members in check.

"Tomorrow's finally the day, huh?" Yamamoto smiled. "The day we're going to bring her back here."

"Yeah," Ryohei nodded. "We'll make this operation extremely successful!"

"Just don't get in my way tomorrow," Hibari stated, folding his arms. "I've yet to finish my fight with her."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT, HIBARI?" Ryohei shouted, standing up from his seat instantly.

Despite the ruckus that was going on, Gokudera remained silent, as if he was deep in thought. His strangely reserved behaviour caught Tsuna's attention, causing him to frown.

"Gokudera-kun, are you okay?"

Gokudera looked up at Tsuna and sighed.

"Yeah," he muttered. "I was just thinking about how Iiya did a good job hiding her situation from all of us."

"Huh?" Yamamoto was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you think she's been acting a little differently these past few months?" Gokudera asked.

"If you're talking about how she started taking photos of us whenever we go out as a group, then isn't it kind of normal?" Ryohei shrugged. "Kyoko does that all the time too, it's probably a girl thing."

"Iiya never did that when we first started going out though…" Gokudera explained. "Not even when we went on dates. And if she could film a video for us prior to getting taken away, it means that she's been aware of what was to come."

"Then, why didn't she tell us?" Yamamoto asked.

"My guess is that she didn't want us to worry," Gokudera nodded. "And she took all the photos to leave us with memories of her."

"She wanted us to remember her being happy," Chrome added.

"Then, there's only one thing to do!" Tsuna said. "Take her back from Xanxus!"

"Lambo-san will bring her back!" Lambo sobbed.

"Let's do it, Tsuna!" Yamamoto nodded.

Yamamoto looked at Gokudera and smiled.

"We'll protect her," Gokudera said. "To the very end."

* * *

Iiya stared at herself in the mirror. She had to admit that the asymmetrical white gown she was wearing now looked… Questionable. It was a halter neck dress, exposing nearly her entire back, the waistline of the skirt starting right above her hips. The hem of the skirt stopped at the middle of her thighs in the front, but lengthened at the back to form a long train, made of pure white lace. She wore a pair of strappy white stilettos, a lot higher than what she was used to wearing when she went out with Gokudera.

"Shi shi shi, you look nice, Iiya-chan," Belphegor snickered.

"Yeah, but seriously…" Iiya rolled her eyes. "What the hell was your boss thinking when he picked this?"

Suddenly, the doors to her dressing room flew open and Xanxus walked in, approaching her slowly. Belphegor grinned and took his leave, leaving the two of them alone in the room. Iiya glared at him, folding her arms and turning away.

"You got what you wanted," she muttered. "Are you happy now?"

"Not yet."

She heard him give a smirk, before he grabbed her by the wrist and forced her to turn around, pulling her into a rough kiss. Iiya could feel his hands running down her exposed back, getting lower and lower, leaving her utterly disgusted. She pushed his hands away and kicked him, provoking him to whip out his gun and point it at her head.

"You scum." He growled. "I can eliminate your whole organisation for this!"

"And lose the manpower you need for your coup?" Iiya retorted.

"Try me, scum," he said, jamming his gun harder against her forehead.

Just then, a knock on the door was heard.

"It's time, boss."

Xanxus sighed and removed his gun from her head. He turned around and left the room, leaving Iiya standing there, clenching her fists and wiping her mouth in defiance.

* * *

"JUMP?" Tsuna shrieked. "WE'RE REALLY GOING TO JUMP?"

Tsuna, his guardians, Reborn and Iiya's officers stood near the door of the Vongola's jet, with all their necessary equipment strapped on. Tsuna and his guardians were dressed in the same suits they had worn for Choice, needing the most durable clothing they could get, with the knowledge that they were likely to engage in combat today. According to the plan, in order to sneak up undetected, they would jump from the jet and skydive, landing approximately one kilometre from the building where the wedding would be held. It was crucial to get the timing of the jump right, as the wedding ceremony would take place on the rooftop, and everyone had to land before people started gathering there, so as to avoid being spotted. Dino and Iemitsu were at the area where they were expected to land, keeping watch to make sure no one would interrupt their operation.

"Yes, we are!" Kyana shouted over the roaring engines.

"Need to hurry, or else we won't make it…" Niro mumbled.

Suddenly, Tsuna felt Reborn's foot on his back and in a split second, he had fallen out of the jet.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Tsuna screamed, flailing his arms, causing Gokudera and Yamamoto to jump out instantly after him.

"Don't panic, Juudaime!" Gokudera assured him.

"We're with you, Tsuna!" Yamamoto grinned.

Tsuna nodded, joining hands with his two guardians and letting his body fall freely, allowing gravity to pull him downwards.

"Let's go save Iiya-san!"

* * *

Once everyone had landed, Iemitsu notified his subordinates to quietly take out any Varia members guarding the place, in order to clear the pathway for everyone's entrances and escapes.

"Thanks, dad!" Tsuna smiled.

"Leading your first major operation as boss…" Iemitsu heaved a sigh of satisfaction. "You've sure come a long way, my son. Dino and I will be waiting here, call us if you need us to provide any backup!"

Tsuna nodded, before running off towards the building, with his guardians and Iiya's officers behind him. They snuck up on the entrance to the building, ensuring that the coast was clear before splitting up into their different directions. With three different doors to enter from, they had planned to ambush the wedding and leave Xanxus and the Varia officers with no route to escape. The most problematic issue would be securing Iiya and ensuring that Xanxus did not escape with her as his hostage.

"Be safe, everyone!" Tsuna said. "Remember that securing Iiya-san is our first priority!"

* * *

Iiya entered through the centre door leading to the rooftop. The sun was shining rather brightly, even as the cold autumn breeze blew past her back and her legs, causing her to shudder. _"Crap, this dress makes me feel so cold… Thank goodness it's just the beginning of the autumn season…"_ She thought. A long white veil covered her face and her fingers wound tightly around a bouquet of red roses. Even though it was her wedding day, she could not help but feel depressed on what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. She looked at Xanxus, who was standing at the end of the aisle, with a smug look on his face.

"Walk."

Belphegor grinned, walking beside her, placing one of his knives close against her back. The blade of the knife was dangerously closed to her skin, forcing Iiya to walk. Trying to hide her resentment, she walked steadily down the aisle and up the platform, until she came face to face with Xanxus. The rooftop was filled to the brim with members of the Varia, who had all come to celebrate their boss' union with her, making Iiya feel slightly defeated.

"Today, we're gathered here to witness the union between Xanxus and Kunaizu Iiya." The pastor announced. "Xanxus, do you take Kunaizu Iiya to be your wife?"

Before Xanxus could open his mouth, a pillar of fire suddenly burst from the ground, coming between Iiya and Xanxus. They jumped back in surprise, narrowly escaping the attack. Xanxus watched in shock as the ground around the platform began to turn into water, throwing the Varia members into a frenzy as they sank into its depths. Xanxus turned around trying to find Iiya, but the pillar of fire had concealed his line of vision.

"Boss, it's an illusion." Mammon called over to him, floating beside Belphegor and Levi. The three of them attempted to make their way to Xanxus, only to be blocked by more pillars of fire erupting from the water.

"WHO'S THERE?" Xanxus demanded. "WHO DID THIS?"

"Who, you ask?" A voice echoed throughout the area.

A purple-haired girl stepped out from behind him, holding a larger version of a shuriken in each hand. She squeezed the water out of her brown capri pants and her purple top, giving an exasperated sigh.

"Did you like those illusions, Xanxus?"

A man with dark blue hair emerged from the shadows, dressed in a long-sleeved black shirt and dark purple trousers. He was holding a baton in each hand, waving the batons downwards to reveal the blades on its ends.

"We're officers with fifty-five personnel under each of us, specialising in either combat or intelligence."

Another man stepped out, mumbling his words but ensuring it was audible, wearing a dark green shirt and blue jeans, with a black band tied around his right arm. He ran his fingers through his brown hair, before whipping out two light maces.

"We're also charged with training and aiding Vongola Decimo and his Family."

Rush smirked, walking out of the second entrance to the rooftop, with his twin daggers firmly in his grip.

"But more importantly, we're officers who defend our boss, while preserving the ideals that she stands for when she founded this organisation!"

A man with messy black hair ran out of the third entrance, gripping a gun in his right hand and a slightly longer scout rifle with his left hand.

Rigaku nodded at Jin, Kiina, Niro and Rush, as Kyana stepped in front of Xanxus.

"To lessen unneccessary bloodshed through protection…" Kyana glared at Xanxus, gripping a small gun blade in each hand. "Del Sangue 55 (Blood 55)!"

"And they won't be doing this alone!" Ryohei stepped out, standing by Rush's side, along with Lambo.

Xanxus watched as Mammon, Belphegor and Levi were frozen in place, unable to make a move. Yamamoto had the long blade of Asari Uegetsu placed against Levi's neck, and the other three short blades pointing at his back. Mammon was trapped within a pillar of fire, a symbol of Chrome's doing. Hibari had bound Belphegor's wrists together with his handcuffs, using his free hand to jam the end of his tonfa into Belphegor's back.

Iiya could feel tears welling up in her eyes at the sight of everyone's faces. Tsuna stood before Xanxus, ready to engage in combat, his Sky flames burning brightly on his forehead and his fists. Iiya felt someone's arm wrap around her neck, feeling a warm, familiar sensation in her heart. His right hand was right in front of her, pulling on a string enforced by Storm flames, and his left hand holding a white and red crossbow, pointed directly at Xanxus' neck.

"We're here to protect you, Iiya."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I was writing the last scene with the KHR OST in mind, namely "Fukutsu" or "Kakugo" (Both tracks seemed to go well with what I had in mind) XD I tried my best to make the ambush as cool as possible, hopefully I managed to do it using only words! Next chapter, the wedding crashing officially begins and reaches its climax :) 4 more chapters to the end of this story OMG :(

Shoutout to allylovesbluefood for the lovely review! Thank you so much :)

Thank for for reading this chapter and supporting this story so far :) I hope you've been enjoying it! Do leave a review if you'd like to give any feedback on the story :) Thank you so much and stay tuned!


	23. Chapter 23

**CHAPTER 23: CRASH**

Iiya looked up at the person guarding her, with his arm slung protectively around her and his crossbow aimed right at Xanxus, leaving Xanxus in shock.

"Hayato…"

Gokudera looked down at her and smiled, causing Iiya to break into a smile as well.

"Listen up, Xanxus…" He spoke in a threatening voice. "You won't be able to take her as your wife… Because if Iiya has to be anyone's bride, it's mine!"

"YEAH!" Rigaku cheered, jumping up and down. "TELL IT TO HIM!"

"As if you could, trash!" Xanxus roared, pointing one gun at Gokudera's neck and the other at Iiya's forehead. "I'm going to take her and DS55, and I'll kill anyone who stands in my way, including the boss herself!"

"And what makes you think her officers will allow that?" Kyana shouted, pointing her gunblade at him.

Xanxus, completely disregarding what Kyana had said, began to store up flames in his gun, as he got more and more enraged with each passing moment. Iiya knew that moving was not an option, as any movement from her or Gokudera would probably cause Xanxus to fire immediately, killing the both of them. She noticed that Gokudera was already beginning to pull back on his crossbow, getting ready to fire at Xanxus. At this moment, the illusion had ended, thanks to Mammon's interference, and the remaining Varia members charged towards Kyana, forcing her to fend them off. The other officers and guardians joined the fray as well, making sure that no one could touch Iiya, since Xanxus words were equivalent to an order to assassinate her. Every passing moment begin to feel like an eternity, as Iiya noticed Yamamoto, Hibari and Chrome struggle to restrain the Varia officers present, engaging in combat. Both Xanxus and Gokudera were charging up their flames, waiting for the right moment to fire.

"It's going to end like this, huh?" She muttered under her breath.

"Don't worry."

Gokudera tightened his grip around her, giving her his assurance. All of a sudden, Xanxus was sent flying towards the sky. Iiya gasped as Tsuna tackled Xanxus violently, creating a huge distance between them. The two preoccupied themselves in a fierce battle, reminiscent of the Representative battle they had fought in five years ago. Gokudera reached behind him and pulled out her crosscuts.

"Found these in your dressing room," he smiled. "Let's go."

Iiya gave a small laugh, taking her crosscuts from him and using them to cut off the train of her dress in one clean swipe. She threw off her veil and nodded, taking his hand and running out of the third entrance. _"I'm counting on you guys,"_ she thought as she glanced at her friends, before making her escape.

* * *

"They were hiding, huh?" Gokudera muttered.

Iiya and he were hiding behind a wall, peeping their heads out briefly to observe the numerous Varia guards who were guarding the floor. Even though they thought they had cleared out the guards prior to barging into the rooftop, Xanxus must have planted more of his Varia members around the building, in order to tighten the security further. Iiya lit up her old Varia ring with Mist flames, projecting images of her and Gokudera at the end of the hallway. She grinned as she watch them fall for her illusions, looking at a bunch of Varia members dashing down the hallway after them, like dogs going after a bone. Once the illusions vanished, the Varia members turned around, spotting the real Iiya and Gokudera behind them. Iiya put a finger to her lips and her crosscuts were brimming with Sky flames.

"Pulire (clean out)."

A burst of Sky flames appeared on the edges of her crosscuts, giving Iiya enough propulsion to move faster, striking the Varia members so quickly that they were knocked out in an instant. Gokudera was left staring, yet to have made his move.

"Damn it!" He groaned.

"Just take it as part of your reward for saving me?" Iiya teased him.

"I can't believe I didn't get to strike before you…" He murmured, still frustrated. "And you're wearing heels that are much higher than what you usually wear!"

"Haha not really," Iiya replied. "I've worn these kind of heels before when I had to gather intelligence, but I'll leave this story for later."

Iiya was just about to run off when Gokudera pulled her into a hug. She could feel his warm palms on her back and inhaled the smell of his cigarettes, breaking out into a gentle smile.

"I swear this time, I'll protect you," he whispered into her ear. "We'll get you home safely."

"Same here," she vowed, before pulling away from him and taking his hand. "Well then, take me with you."

* * *

Yamamoto, Hibari and Chrome went head on head with Levi, Belphegor and Mammon respectively, the three Varia officers having struggled and broken out of their holds, right after Iiya and Gokudera ran out. The other guardians and officers had rushed down to clear the exits after receiving Gokudera's notice regarding the hidden Varia forces, leaving them to deal with Xanxus' officers.

"Out of the way!" Levi barked. "We'll be taking her with us, as requested by the boss!"

"Shi shi shi, how nostalgic to be facing you again," Belphegor jeered.

"We won't be losing this time, though," Mammon declared, before sending out numerous blue tubes from his face, winding them around the three guardians.

Yamamoto nodded at Chrome, who instantly understood what she needed to do. She used her trident to impale the blue tubes, causing green vines to sprout from the tip of her weapon and coil around the tubes. In an instant, the vines tightened, practically strangling the tubes and giving the guardians enough space to wriggle out of its grasp, landing on the floor safely. Mammon retracted his illusions, visibly shocked and weakened by their counterattack. Levi grunted, stepping in front of Mammon, preparing all of his parabolas. Yamamoto trained his eyes on each parabola, fully aware of what attack was coming up.

"Levi Volta!"

The parabolas flew upwards, surrounding the three guardians as they began to charge up with Lightning flames. Hibari instantly took out his Vongola box, releasing Roll. Propagating itself at a heightened speed, the hedgehogs flew towards the parabolas, smashing them into smithereens. Levi's jaw dropped in horror, trembling as he retreated backwards towards Belphegor.

"Well then, let's finish things here." Yamamoto said, rushing towards Belphegor and knocking him out with a single swing of his katana.

Hibari raised his tonfas, smashing it vehemently against Levi until he was unconscious. As for Mammon, Chrome had overwhelmed him with her illusions, leaving Mammon trapped and bound by vines. Suddenly, a transmission was sent through their earpieces and Yamamoto's eyes widened, causing the three of them to run through the door, heading for the exit of the building. Mammon smirked.

"Just because I'm tied up doesn't mean I can't act from afar."

* * *

"Crap!"

"Where are they all coming from?"

Iiya, her officers and Tsuna's guardians had gathered outside the building, only to be surrounded by more forces from the Varia and forced to continue fighting. Dino, Iemitsu and the CEDEF were also caught up with their own problems, as other members of the Varia had appeared to stop them from leaving the vicinity.

"This is exactly like what happened the last time…" Gokudera muttered, recalling the events of the Sky battle and how Xanxus had called for his supporters to wipe them out after everything had ended. He looked up at the sky, looking at the ongoing brawl between Tsuna and Xanxus, knowing that he could not possibly allow any disturbance to their fight.

"Annoying," Kiina murmured.

Using her Cloud flames and its ability to propagate, Kiina swung her shurikens with precise speed and accuracy, multiplying her weapons and watching it tear away at the enemy forces. Noticing an enemy behind her, she gripped the shuriken in her hand and planted the spike into her attacker's stomach, watching the spike extend itself on contact and impale the enemy.

"Brutal as always?" Niro mumbled, swinging his maces with skill and increasing the impact of each hit with his Lightning flames.

"We're outnumbered, but we're gonna take them all out all the same!" Rigaku beamed, using his gun to shoot bullets propelled by Sun flames while simultaneously utilising his scout rifle, firing at enemies who were sneaking up from a distance away. "The party's closed, you can't join in! Sorry!"

Kyana attacked every enemy who approached Iiya, swinging her gunblades at them and ensuring that her boss was guarded well.

"Don't worry about me, Kyana!" Iiya shouted.

Iiya looked around her and noticed the fatigue that was beginning to take over her comrades. Even though they had been cutting down every foe that came their way and were finishing up the last of the remnant forces, their escape could not be secured until Xanxus was defeated. As skilled as they were, it had been an unfair battle and the overwhelming numbers had resulted in injuries on all of them, including herself. All of a sudden, she felt something latch onto her legs, rendering her unable to move.

* * *

Tsuna glared at Xanxus, both sides fully exhausted from battle.

"Stop it, Xanxus!" He ordered.

"Shut up, scum! I was supposed to be the boss, and I WILL BE!"

Xanxus charged up his guns and fired at Tsuna.

"Martello di Fiamma (Hammer of Flame)!"

The shot was much too fast, forcing Tsuna to dodge it. However, something felt wrong, as Tsuna noticed the smug look on his face. Tsuna turned around, gasping in horror.

"Change of plans," Xanxus sneered. "I was going to do that after I had absorbed her organisation, but now I'll just have to threaten them into submission first. The process won't matter… As long as I succeed!"

* * *

Iiya looked down, noticing blue tubes rooting her feet to the ground, leaving her immobile. _"Mammon's doing,"_ she instantly deduced. With the remnant forces dwindling, Iiya gritted her teeth, knowing she could not possibly burden her comrades, who were busy finishing up the remaining Varia members.

"Just a little longer…" She uttered, knocking out another opponent.

* * *

She sighed as they finished the last of their opponents, rejoicing their victory over the numerous forces.

"IIYA-SAN! WATCH OUT!"

Iiya turned around once Tsuna called out to her, watching helplessly as a massive burst of Sky flames headed her way. Gokudera instantly noticed the vines latching onto her legs when she failed to move away, forcing himself to his feet. The long battle had taken a toll on him and everyone else, their injuries wearing them out. He knew that he didn't have enough energy to defend anymore. But still, he couldn't let that attack hit her.

"GOKUDERA!" Yamamoto shouted, as he watched his friend run towards Iiya. He struggled to make his way over to them, clutching the wounds he had sustained on his sides.

"OCTOPUS HEAD!" Ryohei bellowed.

Iiya remained stunned as the flames headed straight for her, thinking that her life was about to flash before her eyes. Suddenly, her vision was obstructed by a familiar figure, and all she could see was the fabric of a white shirt and a black tie. She felt Gokudera take her into his arms, holding her close to him. He closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of her hair and her perfume, as he stroked her hair and whispered into her ear.

"You're the best thing that ever happened to me too, Iiya."

Iiya was shivering in fear and tears spilled out of her eyes, concealing the sound of her scream as the shot echoed throughout the area.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

This cliffhanger was the hardest to write, because the way things turned out here would determine the way I'm ending this story. I actually had a few possibilities in mind and different choices they could make, but I went for this in the end :)

Thank you Eyes-Of-Lost-Fate for your awesome review! :) I'm glad that Chapter 21 made some of you laugh, I was afraid that their conversations would get too confusing to be understood!

Thank you for reading this chapter! Do stay tuned and I hope you've been enjoying this story :) Do leave a review to tell me what you think, if you'd like! Thank you so much :)

Edit: I reposted Chapters 22 and 23 because there seemed to be some problem with them after I changed the title of my chapters! Usually I post it as Chapter _, but I recently changed it to correspond to the title that I've given it (eg. Vongola + Del Sangue 55) and I don't know if this sudden change threw anyone off? So I've changed it back to the usual way I name my titles! Sorry if I confused anyone :(


	24. Chapter 24

**CHAPTER 24: IT HURTS**

Iiya remained motionless once she heard the shot ring out, tears streaming down her face as she wrapped her arms around Gokudera's body. He was unmoving, still holding onto her.

"Hayato..?"

She felt his arms loosen their grip around her and she looked at his face, fearing that he had been critically wounded. A sigh of relief escaped her lips, noticing that he was unscathed and alive. However, seeing the shock on his face told her that something was terribly wrong. Gokudera turned around slowly and Iiya followed his gaze, covering her mouth and screaming as she rushed forth.

"NINTH!"

Timoteo staggered for a moment, suffering from the impact of Xanxus' attack, before finally falling onto the ground. Tsuna spared no time, instantly abandoning the battle with Xanxus and flying down to check on the Ninth, leaving Xanxus stunned. Xanxus looked on as his adoptive father lay there, unable to move an inch. He recalled the words that Tsuna had spoken to him during the Representative Battle, clenching his fists before going over to the Ninth.

At the moment, Iemitsu and Dino had made their way over as well, only to see Iiya and Tsuna holding the Ninth in their arms.

"Why..?" Iiya sobbed. "Why did you do that..?"

"I'm sorry… Iiya-chan…" Timoteo struggled to get his words out. "My son… and I… Wronged you…"

Iiya shook her head vehemently, wiping the tears from her eyes as Gokudera put his arm around her. Timoteo held Iiya's hand and made eye contact with Gokudera.

"You couldn't find your happiness… Because… Of my request…" He panted, coughing in between his words.

"No…" Iiya sniffled. "Accepting that request was nothing… I owed you so much for taking care of me, yet I couldn't even help you fulfil that one request… And you're like this… Because of me!"

Timoteo smiled and shook his head, reaching up to pat her head.

"None of this is your fault, my dear."

Timoteo noticed Xanxus approaching him, smiling instinctively. Tsuna bit hip lip nervously before getting up and nudging Xanxus forward, watching as he dropped to his knees. Timoteo held Xanxus' hand and gave him the same smile he had given when they first met.

"That wasn't meant for you, old man," Xanxus murmured, demonstrating a hint of guilt in his voice.

"It's okay… Promise me… My son…" Timoteo pleaded. "Let Iiya-chan… Go… Let her… Be free…"

After a moment of hesitation, Xanxus relented and nodded, tightening his grasp on his adoptive father's hand.

"Then… Iiya-chan… Be free… To be with… Whoever you wish…"

Timoteo took Gokudera's free hand and placed it on top of Iiya's, much to Iiya's surprise.

"You'll always… Have my… Blessings."

His eyes on the verge of closing, Timoteo managed to breathe his last few words to Tsuna.

"Take care of… The Vongola… Tsunayoshi-kun."

Tsuna gasped as Timoteo took his last breath and closed his eyes, leaving the world for good. Tsuna's guardians, Iiya's officers, Iemitsu and Dino bowed their heads, as Tsuna's eyes filled with tears, before letting out a cry of anger. Gokudera silently held Iiya in his arms, letting her cry on his shoulder, staining his jacket with tears. He watched as CEDEF officers took Xanxus away and rushed to the rooftop to arrest the other Varia members who were involved in this incident.

 _"_ _She probably wished she could have avoided this bloodshed."_

* * *

It had been two weeks since the Ninth's funeral in Italy. Iiya had returned to Japan to ensure that the Japanese headquarters of DS55 were fully fixed, as well as take a breather from the series of events that had taken place. She sat on the sofa, spacing out as she stroked Uri's fur, leaving Gokudera helpless. He had no idea what to do or say to make her feel better, taking a seat beside her and pausing for a moment, before deciding to put his arm around her shoulder.

"Oi… Don't look so sad."

Iiya looked up at him and sighed. She hugged him around his waist without warning, causing Gokudera to feel flustered briefly.

"Sorry."

"It's ok," he said, stroking her hair.

"You lost your mum when you were young too, right..?" Iiya asked him cautiously.

Gokudera paused for a moment, before nodding his head.

"I don't remember much about her, but I keep whatever memories I can recall."

The moonlight streamed in through the glass of the sliding doors and Iiya relaxed her head on his chest.

"I don't remember much about my parents too… They were always busy on missions." Iiya murmured. "But even though we didn't have a lot of memories together… They were still happy ones."

"Same with the Ninth, huh?"

"Yeah. You read my mind?"

Gokudera kissed her on the forehead gently.

"I always do."

Iiya smiled and tightened her grip around him, thinking about how she could have lost him two weeks back if the Ninth had not shielded them.

"Why were you so silly that day..?"

Gokudera shot her a look, sighing as he lit up his cigarette.

"I wasn't being silly."

"Yes, you were!" Iiya reached her hand up and grabbed him by his chin, forcing him to look at her squarely in the eye. "Why did you block me and say that?"

"Say what?" He retorted, nervously taking a drag of his cigarette and acting ignorant.

"Don't act like you don't know! You're too smart to not know it!"

"Shut up!"

"And what was with your declaration in front of Xanxus?"

 _"_ _You won't be able to take her as your wife… Because if Iiya has to be anyone's bride, it's mine!"_ The words resurfaced in Gokudera's head, making him blush.

Iiya glanced at him, waiting for his reply, but he was unable to get any words out.

"I'm gonna sleep."

He grumbled, lying down and still holding her firmly in his arms. He closed his eyes shut, feeling no form or struggle or resistance from Iiya. Iiya looked away from him, burying her face in his chest.

"Two days from now, I have to go back to Italy, you know."

Gokudera's eyes shot open instantly.

"Since DS55's main headquarters are in Italy, I'll have to go back there. And… I'll probably be staying there most of the time."

Silence.

"Since Tsuna and the rest of you are only expected to return to the headquarters in Italy once Tsuna turns twenty-one… Unless I have time to visit Japan or come here for business… I won't be able to feel your touch again till three years later."

Still, silence.

"That hurts," Iiya muttered under her breath, her fingers brushing his cheek.

* * *

The next day, Iiya had arrived at Tsuna's house, accompanied with Gokudera. Tsuna, along with his guardians, Reborn, Dino, Bianchi, Dr Shamal, Kyoko, Haru and I-Pin had decided to throw her a farewell party before she departed for Italy.

"You guys didn't have to do this…" Iiya laughed sheepishly. "I'm just carrying out my duties…"

"But we want to thank you properly for teaching us!" Yamamoto replied.

"Yeah!" Ryohei declared. "An extreme show of gratitude for your guidance!"

"Yeah," Chrome agreed quietly.

"Apparently, I owe you one for fighting with me," Hibari grumbled, having been dragged to the party by Dino.

"Iiya has to play with Lambo-san before she leaves!" Lambo beamed, jumping up and down.

"Well, we just wanted to say thank you for teaching us… And for being our friend."

Tsuna smiled, bringing tears to Iiya's eyes.

"Thank you guys… For being the best students and friends ever."

Iiya went around to give Tsuna and his guardians a hug, to thank them for everything. Tsuna, Yamamoto and Ryohei gladly hugged her back, Chrome was shy about her gesture of friendship and Hibari simply remained indifferent. Iiya was about to reach out to hug the next person when she paused, realising it was Gokudera. He avoided her gaze, scratching his head and trying his best to be cool about it, when he was feeling rather awkward inside. He hadn't exactly come to terms with the fact that she was leaving tomorrow and they wouldn't be able to meet each other for a very long time, till he returned to Italy. Shamal and Bianchi noticed his uneasiness immediately, knowing the reasons for his behaviour.

"Hayato."

Iiya called out to him gently, her arms outstretched before her.

"Argh, don't call me by my first name in front of everyone!" He shouted, clearly riled up, but rushing forward to hug her tightly nevertheless.

Kyoko, Haru and I-Pin sighed in admiration as he held her in his arms, refusing to let go. Tsuna, Yamamoto and Ryohei smiled at each other, knowing how much the two had gone through in order to make it to this point. Bianchi looked over at her younger brother, resting her chin on her hand as she recalled the day he finally realised his feelings for Iiya. All of a sudden, Lambo jumped onto Gokudera's head and hit him.

"Go away, Stupidera!" Lambo shouted. "It's Lambo-san's turn to get hugged!"

"STUPID COW!"

Shamal shook his head, watching the ruckus unfold before him. He turned and whispered something to Bianchi, who nodded and smiled.

 _"_ _There's no time to hold back any longer, Hayato."_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

And with that, the battle is finally over :) No way I'm killing off Gokudera of course, I don't like the idea of killing off main characters in a story (though maybe I should really try it out someday...). 2 more chapters to the end of this story! I'm still in the midst of editing the last 2 chapters :) Next chapter, Gokudera gets talked to by Shamal and his friends and he makes a decision on his feelings.

In regards to my re-uploading of Chapter 22 and 23, I wasn't sure if the 2 chapters were uploaded properly because I noticed that the recent reviews only went up till Chapter 21, even if I had posted these 2 chapters up. Plus FanFiction hasn't been notifying me of certain updates (I got a review but strangely enough they didn't notify me at all, even though they usually do...). So just to be safe, I re-uploaded these 2 chapters! Didn't want to keep any readers waiting unnecessarily :)

Also, shoutout to Arthur Moebius! Thank you for leaving a nice review! :)

Thank you so much for your support on this story so far! Do leave a review if you have any thoughts/feedback on this story :) Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for the last 2 chapters! :)


	25. Chapter 25

**CHAPTER 25: PROMISE**

"What did you drag me here for?" Gokudera shouted.

Iiya had remained downstairs with everyone else to chat, while Shamal, Tsuna, Yamamoto and Ryohei had forced him up to Tsuna's room, locking the door behind them. The five of them sat around the table, staring at each other while Shamal grinned.

"Why, Hayato, I'm here to give you some advice on women!" He chuckled.

"What kind of advice could you possibly offer, you perverted old man?" Gokudera retorted. "And why did you drag Juudaime into this?"

"Well, Gokudera-kun, Shamal asked us up to give you support…" Tsuna smiled.

The cheeky grin disappeared from Shamal's face promptly, his expression turning into a serious one.

"I saw the way you looked at her, Hayato."

Gokudera looked away from Shamal, indicating that he had hit the nail right on the head. Having watched him grow up, Shamal knew very well when Gokudera was holding something back. And with Iiya leaving tomorrow for Italy, he could only imagine how frustrated he was feeling on the inside.

"Did you say anything to her?"

"No." Gokudera shook his head.

"For real, Octopus Head?" Ryohei exclaimed in shock.

"You should have said something, Gokudera!" Yamamoto agreed. "After everything that's happened, she's leaving tomorrow and you aren't gonna do anything at all?"

"What could I do?" Gokudera grumbled, ruffling his silver hair in annoyance. "Ask her to stay? Ask her to forsake her role as the boss? We both knew she couldn't stay."

"So that's it?" Shamal demanded.

"Calm down!" Tsuna cried, trying to lessen the tension in the room. "We're still gonna keep in contact with Iiya-san, so it's not like Gokudera-kun and Iiya-san will break it off once she leaves for Italy… Plus we're going back to Italy in three years time…"

"It's three years, Hayato…" Shamal shook his head. "And you aren't going to say anything to her? You aren't going to do anything?"

"I already said," Gokudera barked, waving his cigarette at Shamal. "Nothing I say or do will make her stay."

"Well, you could always knock her up and she'd have to stay…" Shamal muttered under his breath jokingly.

"What the hell?" Gokudera shouted, his fist about to slam into Shamal's face, only to be held back by Yamamoto and Ryohei.

Shamal snickered, shaking his head and standing up to leave. _"You care about her more than you realise, Hayato."_

"Well, what I'm saying is, regardless of whether or not she can stay, there still isn't a point in holding back your feelings when she's going to leave tomorrow!" Shamal shrugged. "If there's something you want to do, do it! Leave her with the best memories for now, until the day you two can be together again."

Once Shamal left the room, Gokudera grumbled, shaking Yamamoto and Ryohei off him. Tsuna paused for a moment, thinking about what Shamal had said to him.

"I think Shamal has a point, Gokudera-kun."

"Juudaime..?"

"Yeah…" Tsuna spoke slowly. "Iiya-san is leaving tomorrow… If there's something you want to express to her, you'll have to do it before she goes… If not you'll have to wait another three years!"

* * *

Gokudera contemplated Tsuna's words, thinking about how long it would be before he could see her again. Even though there was a chance that Iiya could come to Japan for leisure or for work, those chances were small, given how unpredictable the future was. The only guarantee he had of seeing her was when Tsuna and his guardians moved back to Italy, three years later, after they had taken care of everything in Japan. Could he really wait till then?

Gokudera remained deep in thought as he held Iiya's hand on the way home. Their boots made crunching sounds against the yellowing leaves on the ground, and the wind blew past them, making soft howling noises. He opened the door to the apartment, walking in listlessly as Iiya followed behind him, taking off her jacket. He sighed as he took his off as well, still thinking about what he should do.

"Hayato?"

He looked up at her, her blue eyes glistening in the moonlight.

"You forgot to switch on the lights."

"Oh!" He jumped, not realising that he had forgotten to do something as simple as that. "Sorry."

Iiya smiled, walking up to him and stroking his hair.

"You're acting strangely."

He looked away from her, averting her gaze.

"It's okay, I'm just teasing you."

Iiya laughed softly before patting him on the cheek.

"I'm going to take a shower now."

She paused once she saw the look on his face, noticing how he had not moved from his spot, almost as if he had been stunned. He appeared to be deep in thought and she cocked her head sideways when he sighed, her eyes widening slightly once he pulled her into a hug.

"I know I can't stop you from leaving."

"Yeah, I know that too."

He had a serious expression on his face as he held her by her shoulders, sending her heart pounding in her chest.

"I don't know how to express what I feel with words, Iiya."

"I know," she nodded, her cheeks flushing madly as his hands ran down her arms, holding her hands in his.

"So…"

Iiya stared at him, rendered completely speechless when she saw the blushing mess before her.

"ARGH FORGET IT!" He shouted, turning away from her bashfully and shoving his hands in his pockets. "What was I thinking, seriously?"

She stared at his back view for a second, watching him get frustrated and run his fingers through his hair, evidently embarrassed.

"Tell me."

Gokudera turned around with hesitation, but relaxed slightly once he noticed her gentle smile radiating towards him.

"I just wish you didn't need to go back."

Iiya rested her head on his shoulder and tried her best to hold back her tears.

"Me too."

"Three years is pretty long."

"Yeah, don't remind me."

Sensing her sadness, he tightened his grip around her and kissed her forehead gently, running his fingers through her hair.

"I'd run to Italy to find you if I could."

Iiya looked up at him and smiled.

"I'd come back here to see you too... I will if I have free time."

"Then you'd better work hard to make that happen."

Iiya laughed as he tackled her onto the bed, causing them both to fall over. She felt his silver hair dance over her fingers as she pulled him towards her, giving him a kiss on the nose.

"Same to you, Hayato."

* * *

Gokudera looked down at her lying in his arms. It was getting late, yet she had not fallen asleep.

"Can't sleep..?"

Iiya shook her head.

"I just don't feel like it."

"Why?"

"We're gonna be apart in less than twenty four hours, and you look too worried..." Iiya reached up to trace his furrowed brows with her fingers.

"No, I don't." He looked away, obviously denying it.

Iiya stared at the cut on his arm, remembering how he had gotten it from about two weeks ago, when they were fighting the Varia members at the wedding. She touched the wound, which was still in the process of healing, and sighed. Gokudera touched the back of her neck, stroking the lines of the character imprinted there.

"Didn't know you had a tattoo there."

"I got it quite long ago. It's the chinese character for 'protect'."

Gokudera's fingers followed the chain around her neck, finding its way to the pendants hanging there, carrying the symbols of the Vongola and DS55.

"Hey, what if you find someone else while I'm away?"

"Idiot! It won't happen," Gokudera shook his head firmly. "You?"

"Not happening on my side either."

She held out her pinky, hooking it with his.

"I promise."

* * *

Iiya stood outside the jet, surrounded by the people she had met in Nanimori, including Tsuna and his guardians. She wasn't ready to say her goodbyes to the friends she had made, knowing she would miss every single one of them, but she knew it couldn't be avoided.

"Visit us when you're free, Iiya-chan!" Kyoko smiled.

"Haru can't wait to see you again!" Haru cheered, running forward to hug her, along with I-Pin and Kyoko.

Iiya glanced at Tsuna and his guardians.

"Thanks for everything, guys."

She went to each of them to give them a hug.

"See you all in three years time, I guess."

"See you real soon, Iiya!" Yamamoto laughed.

"Yes! Time will pass extremely quickly!" Ryohei nodded.

"Take care." Chrome smiled.

"I'll be waiting to defeat you properly." Hibari declared.

"Thank you for everything, Iiya-san."

Iiya glanced at Tsuna and smiled back.

"We'll be in touch!" He said.

"Iiya!" Lambo tugged on Iiya's sleeve. "Don't go! Stay and play with Lambo-san!"

"Haha I wish I could, Lambo!" Iiya laughed. "But I have to go back to Italy…"

"Stop it, Stupid Cow!" Gokudera chided him, trying to pull Lambo off her. "You're gonna pull her sleeve off!"

Tsuna noticed something red on Iiya's neck, instinctively pointing at it.

"Eh? What's that, Iiya-san?"

Iiya looked down and panicked immediately, pulling the collar of her jacket back up to cover the red mark. Everyone stared in bewilderment at her reaction, when Shamal smirked and threw his arm around Gokudera.

"Wow, Hayato!" He teased. "You went for it last night, huh?"

"ARGH GET OFF ME, YOU PERVERTED OLD MAN!" Gokudera shouted, pushing Shamal away while blushing furiously.

With that, the last person she had yet to bid farewell to was Gokudera. They stared at each other for a moment, before Iiya decided to break the silence.

"So… This is it, then."

"Yeah."

"Take care of yourself while I'm away."

"Sure."

Iiya shrugged, unsurprised by his one-worded replies. He was starting to look away from her, his hands going into the pockets of his jeans. _"As expected."_ She gave an exasperated laugh and hugged him around his waist.

"Goodbye, Hayato. I'll miss you."

She let go of him and turned around, about to head up the staircase leading to the jet when she felt a hand tug her wrist, spinning her around. She felt two hands grasping her waist and her back, and something soft on her lips. She did not bother to resist, closing her eyes and taking in his scent for the last time, until they had the opportunity to meet again in three years time. Gokudera drew away from her after a while, leaning his forehead against hers and sighing.

"I love you, Iiya." He whispered. "Wait for me."

"Okay," she nodded, her hands running down his hair lovingly. "I'll be waiting for you in Italy then."

"Are you going to respond to my first line or not?" He asked in an annoyed tone, but Iiya knew exactly how he was feeling inside.

"Yeah." She smiled. "I love you too."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 _Edit: I chose to edit the middle section because after a week upon ending this story, it just didn't sit right with me. And since this story will always be here, I decided to change it. Changing it makes me feel better though, I think it makes the story flow a bit better and links better to the next chapter._

Tomorrow's the final chapter. Omg I can't believe it's already going to end :(

As for what's next... I'm probably going to write something non-linear. There were a lot of aspects I wanted to explore in this story. For one, I wanted to write a chapter on Tsuna and Kyoko but I never got to do that T.T I've actually also considered a triangle between Gokudera, Iiya and Yamamoto, but I have no idea how that would turn out. And more stuff regarding Gokudera and Iiya, and the whole DS55 (I actually wrote their profiles in a separate document). I'll probably start on it once I finish this, or maybe after I return from my holiday?

Thank you for supporting this story so far and reading this chapter :) I hope you've been enjoying this story! Do leave a review if you'd like to give any feedback on this story. Thank you so much and I hope you're looking forward to the final chapter! It's time to give them a nice ending :)


	26. Chapter 26

**CHAPTER 26: THE FUTURE**

"I'll call you tomorrow. You'd better pick up immediately."

Gokudera closed his laptop and relaxed on his couch, taking off his glasses and reaching for his cigarettes. He sighed and kicked up his feet onto the coffee table, lighting one up. He watched his cigarette burn, emitting thin waves of white smoke, recalling the day he saw her on the rooftop burning them. It had been a year since he had last seen her. Even though they tried to call each other every day, the frequency of their calls had been dwindling lately, since they had to deal with a lot of work on their respective sides. Tsuna was still observing Xanxus' behaviour strictly, making sure he was kept in check after the Ninth's passing. Knowing the Ninth would have given Xanxus another chance out of his unconditional love for his son, Tsuna had spared Xanxus on the condition that he was not to harass Iiya anymore and focus on serving the Vongola as the boss of the Varia. On Iiya's side, she was training her new batch of subordinates, ensuring that they were combat-ready and could assimilate into the organisation quickly. He couldn't help but worry as their calls were getting more and more brief, and he wondered if he could even sustain their relationship till he the day he returned to Italy.

"Oh crap, time to meet Juudaime!"

He jumped out of his seat, putting on his boots hastily before bolting out of the door.

* * *

It was snowing lightly in Nanimori and christmas lights decorated the streets. It was a particularly cold Christmas Eve this year, and Reborn had decided to call Tsuna's friends to celebrate the day together.

"We're all single and lonely this Christmas Eve again?" Ryohei grumbled. "Extremely disappointing!"

"Now, now, Senpai! It's alright!" Yamamoto shrugged, patting Ryohei's shoulder. "At least we have each other!"

"I wish Kyoko-chan could come today…" Tsuna muttered, making sure he was inaudible and Ryohei couldn't hear him.

Gokudera simply shoved his hands in his pocket and took a puff of his cigarette. There had been many girls bugging him to go out with them today, his admirers from both Nanimori Middle and his high school sending him text messages incessantly in a futile attempt to ask him out. Of course, none of that mattered. The only person he would say yes to was miles away from him anyway.

"Oh, Gokudera-kun, can you wait here for a minute?" Tsuna asked. "I need to get something!"

Before Gokudera could answer, Tsuna had run off, looking quite flustered. Yamamoto and Ryohei looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders and laughing it off.

"Gokudera, did you talk with Iiya today?" Yamamoto asked.

"Only for a while," he replied.

"Extremely busy with work?" Ryohei questioned him.

"Probably. She hasn't been able to talk much. It's just too bad, I guess."

Suddenly, Gokudera felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around in response, thinking it was Tsuna.

"Juudaime, you're b-"

His mouth was left hanging when he noticed who was standing beside Tsuna. Her hair was slightly longer than he remembered it to be, tied into a braid at the side and forming a gradient from light orange to pink. She was panting, making it evident that she had rushed over. Adjusting her scarf, she brushed her bangs away from her face and smiled.

"Hey."

They stared at each other for a moment, not knowing how to react after having been apart for so long.

"What's with the staring, Octopus Head?" Ryohei raised his eyebrow.

"Your conversations with her had been getting shorter and shorter lately, right?" Tsuna smiled.

"Oh I see! She rushed her work to be able to spend Christmas eve with you!" Yamamoto exclaimed.

"W-w-why are you here?" Gokudera asked, still in shock.

"Didn't you hear what Yamamoto said?" She laughed. "My next batch of new personnel are in the Japanese branch. So, I thought I'd rush my work and come back to spend Christmas Eve with all of you."

* * *

Everything had felt so familiar. Walking home with her hand in his, going into the same apartment together, curling up with Uri after her bath… Everything felt so warm. Uri hopped into her arms once she had finished her shower and Gokudera went in to take his. Iiya ran her fingers over the chair, remembering everything that had happened in the apartment in the year they lived together. She explored the familiar setting, noticing how he had kept all the things she had left in his house, like her toothbrush, her mug and her space in their closet. Suddenly, she felt his hands cover her eyes and Uri hop out of her arms, only to be replaced with something round and cold. Earphones were plugged into her ears, playing beautiful piano melodies. She felt Gokudera's arms around her waist and his lips on her cheek.

"What's this..?" She asked.

"It's just a bunch of songs I recorded myself playing on the piano," he murmured, slightly bashful. "I was going to send it over to you tomorrow, but since you're here I thought I'd just give it to you now."

Iiya remained silent, listening closely to the music he was playing.

"If you hate it, I'll just take it back," he grumbled, taking the earpieces away from her.

"I love it."

He smiled once he heard her reply. Iiya wriggled out of his embrace, reaching into her bag and pulling something out.

"I made you this."

She thrust a book into his hands, flipping the book open to the first page. Gokudera looked through curiously, seeing all sorts of items inside, including photographs from their dates, burnt cigarettes, pressed flowers and words.

"I just compiled all of my thoughts from the past year into a scrapbook," she blushed.

 _"What's this? 'I burnt this cigarette and I thought of you', 'I wish I could see this next to me when I sleep'… What the hell? Is that me sleeping?"_ He thought.

Iiya smiled as the clock struck midnight.

"Merry Christmas, Hayato."

"Merry Christmas, Iiya."

"I hope I'll get to spend the next holiday with you again."

Gokudera shook his head, to her surprise.

"Not just the next. But every single one in the future."

Iiya blushed once she heard the words come out from his mouth, nodding happily.

"You do know what you're hinting at, right?" She teased him.

"Huh?" He retorted. "What are you saying?"

She shook her head, laughing as she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into a firm kiss, which deepened with every passing second.

* * *

Iiya sat on the grass, looking at the diamond ring on her finger and recalling everything that had happened in the recent eight years. Spring had finally arrived and flowers were beginning to bloom in the Vongola Mansion's garden. She ran her fingers through her hair as the wind blew gently in her face, raising her camera up to take a picture of the calm, blue sky. It had been so long since she last took a breather and she was more than happy with the way the DS55 was flourishing right now. Her officers were as dynamic as ever, still making different bets on her personal life, such as the age she would marry and the age she would have her first child. It was frustrating at times, but as the boss, she had to admit that her subordinates' smiles were something she would want to protect. Iiya felt someone tap her shoulder, causing her to look up.

"Oh Miyako, you're done so quickly?"

A girl with orange hair and green eyes walked over to her, her face beaming with joy. She sat down next to Iiya in her pink dress and handed a piece of paper to her. She broke out in a smile and raised her camera to take a picture of the little girl. Looking at the piece of paper, with G Letters scribbled on them using crayons, Iiya nodded and handed the paper back to her, giving her a big hug.

"Alright, let's just wait for a moment for your father to arrive!"

Just as Iiya said those words, Tsuna walked into the garden, his guardians following closely behind him. They had just arrived from a meeting with their allies and were returning to the mansion to rest. Miyako skipped over to the group of adults, the paper in her hand, reaching out her arms towards them.

"Oh! Let's see who little Miyako will go to!" Ryohei grinned, squatting down immediately.

"Sure, senpai!" Yamamoto knelt down as well, with his arms outstretched.

"Hmm?" Hibari was mildly interested in the adorable girl, kneeling down with Hibird perched on his shoulder.

"Adorable," Chrome simply smiled and followed suit.

"My, my, she's so cute…" Lambo sighed.

"Hello, Miyako-chan!" Tsuna smiled, reaching out towards her.

However, Miyako didn't even have any of them in her sight, running towards the man with silver hair, wearing a red long-sleeved shirt, a black tie and black trousers. His blazer was hanging on the crook of his left arm and he bent down, picking her up once she came into his arms.

"Of course she'll come to me, Lawn Head!" Gokudera said proudly. "She's my daughter!"

Iiya joined them, looking at each of their faces and noticing how much they had grown up since the day she first met them. They had come a long way from being the youngsters they once were, maturing into outstanding members of the Vongola Family. She took Gokudera's blazer from his arm, watching fondly as he gave their daughter a kiss.

"I took a really nice picture of her just now, you know!" Iiya smiled, showing them the picture of Miyako she had just taken using her camera.

Gokudera's eyes widened once he saw the photo, hastily reaching into the back pocket of his trousers and pulling out a similar-looking photo. Iiya stared at him in bewilderment, wondering how he could've gotten his hands on it.

"Your future self gave this to me ten years ago during our training, when she teamed up with Rush to fight with Juudaime and me," Gokudera explained. "Once Miyako started growing up, I understood what she meant when she said this picture would motivate me."

Miyako waved the paper in front of Gokudera's face, smacking him on the head with it by accident and provoking the laughter of Tsuna and his other guardians. Iiya simply stood by and watched intently as Gokudera looked at the symbols written on the paper, before turning to Tsuna.

"By the way, Tsuna," she said, taking Miyako from Gokudera as he continued to stare at what Miyako had written. "I might not be so active in November. I'll probably be on leave for a month or two… So in the meanwhile, I'll ask Kyana to help in case you need any assistance from DS55."

"Huh?" Tsuna was completely confused. "Why is that, Iiya-san?"

The other Guardians stared at Gokudera as he dropped the piece of paper on the ground.

"Blame your right-hand man for being too acti-"

"YOU'RE PREGNANT?" Gokudera shouted, looking at her immediately.

Iiya grinned, shooting her daughter a playful smile and making her laugh.

"Isn't that great?" Yamamoto chuckled, patting Miyako's head. "Miyako will have a sibling to play with!"

"Congratulations, Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna cheered.

Surrounded by his friends, Gokudera hugged his wife and his daughter, ecstatic at the news. He kissed Miyako on the cheek, before giving Iiya one on the forehead.

"Thanks."

So many things had happened ever since he met her. Going through all of that was exhilarating and painful at the same time, yet the experience of loving her and being loved by her was something that he wouldn't trade for anything. He looked lovingly at the family he now had, the family he had always yearned for ever since he was a child.

"You really are the best thing that ever happened to me."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

And with that, that's the end of the story :) I hope you all enjoyed this story and that you liked the ending! I've always liked happy endings haha, even though sad endings are good, I feel that Iiya deserves a happy end, especially given how badly things could've turned out if she ended up with Xanxus...

I'm going to start writing my next story today. It's going to be a non-linear story based on random situations and it takes place in the same universe as this story :) The first scenario is about Tsuna and Kyoko and I'm excited to see how this goes! Iiya and the rest of DS55 will make their appearances in the story when required :)

A big big BIG THANK YOU to every single one of you who reviewed, favourited and followed my story! It always puts a smile on my face whenever I get a notification from FanFiction telling me that someone has reviewed/favourited/followed this story :) Thank you so much for your support and for sticking with me to the very end :3

Do leave a review to tell me how you feel about this story and the ending! I'd love to hear any feedback you have :) And also, if there's anything you wish to see in my next story, you can tell me about that too :)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY :) Till next time! :)


	27. Chapter 27 (BONUS!)

**CHAPTER 27: NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNING**

"I'm so glad we managed to meet up today!"

Iiya was beaming as she looked at each of her officers' faces. They had not been able to meet up very often due to their respective workloads, but promised each other that they would clear their schedules to bring in the New Year together. Being together was a rare occasion for them, as being a relatively small organisation, they were forced to manage a lot more and had to spread themselves more thinly than any other organisation within the Vongola. For this occassion, Iiya had cooked up a storm and had them gather at the DS55 Headquarters in Italy, having the entire building to themselves, since the other subordinates were allowed to be with their families to celebrate.

"Yay! It's been too long since I got to eat your food, Boss!" Rigaku cheered, throwing his arm over her shoulder playfully.

"So noisy…" Kiina muttered.

"On other days, I would've smacked him in the head and forced him to shut up… But I guess I'll make an exception today!" Kyana sighed in exasperation.

"Lighten up, Kyana!" Rush laughed. "You know you're secretly happy to see us all, aren't you?"

"She's going to deny it…" Niro mumbled.

"Yeah, she's going to!" Jin smirked. "Just wait for it…"

"I'm not!" Kyana shook her head defiantly. "Don't get ahead of yourselves!"

Iiya giggled, watching her officers banter with one another. It felt so nostalgic, being able to get together with them again. Usually, she could only see them via video chat, with projections of their faces on the screen and transmissions of their voices made possible by the internet. But today, the real thing was in front of her. Her friends were gathered right before her very eyes, spending the New Year's Eve with her.

Well, most of her friends, that is.

She wondered how Tsuna and his guardians were doing in Japan. Most importantly, she wondered what Gokudera was doing right now. She hoped he wasn't alone in his apartment, smoking the holiday away. They had been talking quite a bit recently, since it was almost time for Tsuna and his guardians to return to Italy. Preparations for their return were underway, and though they would be travelling to and from Japan, it had been decided that they would all be stationed within Italy in order to keep them close to the rest of their subordinates.

* * *

 _"_ _So… When are you coming back?" She asked, her laptop placed on her bed and her chin rested on her hand._

 _"_ _Soon," Gokudera nodded._

 _"_ _That's not very specific."_

 _"_ _I'm telling you, it's soon!"_

 _"_ _Meaning?"_

 _"_ _Argh, just take this answer for now alright!"_

 _"_ _I don't have a choice, do I?"_

 _Gokudera sighed, putting out his cigarette and lighting up a new one._

 _"_ _Just be patient, okay? We'll see each other really soon."_

* * *

"Iiya!" Kyana shouted. "One more minute to the New Year!"

"What?" Iiya stood up from her seat, her train of thoughts broken by Kyana's exclamation. "That was too fast! I'm not ready!"

Suddenly, the doors of the room burst open, and the sounds of panting were slightly audible. At the doors stood a few familiar figures, but there was one figure that caught Iiya's attention instantly.

"Glad you could make it, Vongola Decimo!" Jin smiled.

"Hah… It was so difficult to keep up with them!" Tsuna groaned, still trying to catch his breath.

"Looks like you guys are doing well!" Yamamoto grinned, slapping Rush on the back.

"Now we can do the countdown to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed.

Iiya stared as the silver-haired man looked up at her, giving her a slight smile.

"I told you."

Just as the countdown reached zero and the clock struck midnight, Iiya ran into Gokudera's arms, which held her tightly, refusing to let her go even as he kissed her on the cheek.

* * *

It was hard to believe that another year had passed by so quickly, and another year had begun all over again. The gentle morning sunlight streamed through the translucent curtains on her windows, and onto her face. Iiya had not expected them to return to Italy permanently in such a short amount of time, thanks to her officers and their "deception". Apparently, once they had found out that Tsuna and his guardians would be returning to Italy earlier than promised, they carefully hid the truth from her, so that they would be able to surprise her on New Year's Day. The surprise made her very happy indeed, as she looked at Gokudera's sleeping face right in front of her. She brushed his hair away from his face, tracing her finger down his cheeks. His arms were wound tightly around her even as he slept, and that sensation told her that everything before her was real. He really had returned soon enough, just like he said he would.

"Ugh… Stop staring already…"

Iiya jumped once she realised that she had roused him from his sleep, before turning away in embarrassment.

"Sorry…" She mumbled.

She could hear him grumbling as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

"So… Is this soon enough for you?" He asked.

"Yeah," she smiled. "I'm glad you're back."

He went silent for a moment, before releasing his grasp on her. Iiya was just about to turn around, when he put his hand on her shoulder firmly and ordered her not to move. She could hear the sounds of the blanket shifting and his footsteps on the ground, leaving her puzzled.

"Uh… You can turn around now."

Iiya sat up and turned around, only to see Gokudera take a seat beside her on the bed. There was something in his hand, but she had no idea what it could be. She didn't even have the slightest clue what he was up to.

"You're twenty-one now, right?"

"Uh… Yeah?" Iiya raised her eyebrow. "And you're twenty-two?"

"Right."

"And?"

Gokudera bit his lip nervously, his eyes looking down at the object he kept hidden in his hands. He held the object with slightly trembling fingers, before proceeding.

"Maybe it's a bit early, but after these three years apart, I realised I don't ever want to be separated from you again."

He got off the bed and revealed the small, red box in his hands. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in shock, the moment he got down on one knee.

"Can you be with me… Always?"

Iiya struggled to find the right words to say, wondering if she was misunderstanding the situation.

"Are you..?"

"YES, I'M ASKING YOU TO MARRY ME, DAMN IT!" Gokudera shouted in both frustration and embarrassment.

She could feel a smile creeping onto her lips instantly, once he said those words. She was all ready to cry tears of joy, as she looked at his face, red from his bashfulness upon saying those words.

"If it's too early, then for-"

"Yes."

Gokudera stared at her, as she nodded.

"Yes. I'll marry you."

He broke out into a smile and picked her up from the bed happily, before planting a kiss on her lips. He gave her another one after he put the ring on her finger, unable to contain himself.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"I guess I need to tell Juudaime and the others…"

"Yeah, and I'll need to tell Kyana and the rest about this too… And you need to tell Bianchi and Shamal!"

"Ugh I wish I didn't have to…"

"Bianchi will be so glad to hear about this though!"

"Yeah, but the happiest one will still be me."

Iiya smiled, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you for loving me, Hayato."

"You too."

"I'm more than happy to be able to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Me too."

* * *

"Wah! Congratulations, Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna cheered.

"You did it, Gokudera!" Yamamoto smiled, giving him a pat on the back.

"It was an extreme success then, Octopus Head!" Ryohei chimed in.

Gokudera grumbled as he held up Iiya's hand, showing his friends the ring she wore on her finger.

"So when's the wedding?" Tsuna asked.

"We're thinking of having it in October or November… Since we're usually more free during that period of time," Iiya stated. "Are you okay with it?"

"Of course!" Tsuna replied. "I want Gokudera-kun to be happy!"

"Juudaime…"

"Okay! Then I expect to see all of you there!" Iiya smiled.

"You can count on us!" Yamamoto grinned.

"Count on us to the extreme!"

"I can't wait for the day to come," Iiya whispered into Gokudera's ear.

"Yeah, me too." He admitted quietly, squeezing her hand tightly in his.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

I had always wanted to write a special holiday chapter for this story but I was away during Christmas, so I decided to do it for the New Year instead :)

Happy New Year everyone! :D

I hope you all enjoyed this special bonus chapter and that you liked the ending of the story. If you'd like to, do leave a review to tell me what you think of this chapter or the story as a whole! Thank you very much for reading and have a great 2016 ahead! :)


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